page_title: History of the Jews in Austria
section_title: Contemporary situation
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Jews in Austria / Contemporary situation
caption_attribution_description: Image of the Stadttempel in Vienna.
context_page_description: The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewish community prospered and enjoyed political equality, and during other periods it suffered pogroms, deportations to concentration camps and mass murder, and antisemitism. The Holocaust drastically reduced the Jewish community in Austria and only 8,140 Jews remained in Austria according to the 2001 census, but other estimates place the current figure at 9,000, 15,000 and 20,000 people, if accounting for those of mixed descent.
context_section_description: Since the Holocaust, the Jewish community in Austria was rebuilt itself, although it was much smaller. In the 1950s a wave of immigration from the Soviet Union brought Russian Jews to Austria. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, there has been a renewed influx of Jewish people from the former Soviet Union. The current Austrian Jewish population is around 12,000–15,000 — most living in Vienna, Graz and Salzburg. About 800 are Holocaust survivors who lived in Austria before 1938 and about 1,500 are immigrants from countries once a part of the Soviet Union.
  In July 1991 the Austrian government acknowledged its role in the crimes of the Third Reich during World War II. In 1993, the Austrian government reconstructed the Jewish synagogue in Innsbruck, which was destroyed during Kristallnacht, and in 1994 they reconstructed the Jewish library in Vienna, which was then reopened.
  Neo-Nazism and antisemitism has not vanished entirely from public life in Austria. In the 1990s many threatening letters were sent to politicians and reporters, and some Austrian public figures have occasionally shown sympathy toward Nazism.
  Kurt Waldheim was appointed as Austria's president in 1986 despite having served as an officer in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. He remained the president of Austria until 1992. During his term he was considered a persona non grata in many countries. From 1989-1991 and 1999–2008, Jörg Haider, who made multiple anti-Semitic statements and was often accused of being a Nazi sympathizer, served as Governor of Carinthia.
  The Austrian government was sued for Austria's involvement in the Holocaust and required to compensate its Jewish survivors. Initially, the government postponed the compensation matters, until the United States started putting on pressure. In 1998 the Austrian government introduced the Art Restitution Act, which looked again at the question of art stolen by the Nazis. (But see also, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for an example of its reluctance in compensating victims.) In November 2005, the Austrian government sent out compensation letters to the 19,300 Austrian Holocaust survivors still living. The total amount that Austria paid in compensation was over $2 million, which was paid to individual Holocaust survivors themselves, to the owners of businesses that were damaged, and for stolen bank accounts, etc. In addition, the Austrian government also transferred $40 million to the Austria Jewish fund.
  The biggest Jewish presence in Austria today is in Vienna, where there are synagogues, a Jewish retirement home, the Jewish Museum (founded in 1993), and other community institutions. Austrian Jews are of many different denominations, from Haredi to Reform Jews. The Jewish community also has many activities arranged by the Chabad movement, which manages kindergartens, schools, a community center and even a university. There are also active branches of Bnei Akiva and Hashomer Hatzair youth movements. Today, the biggest minority among the Jewish community in Vienna are immigrants from Georgia, followed by those from Bukhara, each with separate synagogues and a large community center called "The Spanish center".
  There were very few Jews in Austria in the early post-war years; however, some of them became very prominent in Austrian society. These include Bruno Kreisky, who was the Chancellor of Austria between 1970 and 1983, the artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Jewish politicians such as Elisabeth Pittermann, a member of the Parliament of Austria from the Social Democratic Party of Austria and Peter Sichrovsky, who was formerly a member of the Freedom Party of Austria and a representative in the European Parliament.
  Latent antisemitism is an issue in several rural areas of the country. Some issues in the holiday resort Serfaus gained special attention in 2010, where people thought to be Jews were barred from making hotel bookings, based on a racial bias. Hostility by some inhabitants of the village towards those who accommodate Jews was reported. Several hotels and apartments in t
caption: The Stadttempel in Vienna—the main building of the Jewish community, which houses the central synagogue
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