page_title: Leopoldstadt
section_title: Jewish Leopoldstadt
hierarchical_section_title: Leopoldstadt / Jewish Leopoldstadt
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ultraorthodoxe Juden aus Galizien auf dem Karmeliterplatz in Wien, Leopoldsstadt English: Orthodox Jews from Galicia at the Karmeliterplatz in Vienna's second district Leopoldstadt.
context_page_description: Leopoldstadt is the 2nd municipal District of Vienna. There are 103,233 inhabitants over 19.27 km². It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau, forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Due to its relatively high percentage of Jewish inhabitants, Leopoldstadt gained the nickname Mazzesinsel. This context was a significant aspect for the district twinning with the New York City borough Brooklyn in 2007.
context_section_description: In 1625, Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller became the rabbi of Vienna. At the time, the Jews of Vienna were scattered throughout the city, not having a central community. Heller obtained for the Jews the right to establish a central Jewish community in Leopoldstadt, which was already then a suburb of Vienna. He was instrumental in reorganizing the community, and he drew up its constitution.
  By the mid-17th century, part of the built-up area was the Jewish ghetto. At that time the area was called "Im Werd", with the Jewish population living in an area called "Unterer Werd". The hatred that Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor held for the Jews led to the forceful expulsion and destruction of the Jewish community (gesera), with the popular support of the local non-Jewish population. As a thanksgiving for the expulsion, the inhabitants renamed the area Leopoldstadt ("Leopold's city"), after the emperor. During the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Jewish immigrants from eastern parts of the realm again flocked to Leopoldstadt, owing to the proximity of the Nordbahnhof railway station, which was one of the main train stations at which migrants from other parts of the empire arrived in Vienna. The high number of Jewish inhabitants led to the area being called Mazzesinsel ("Island of Matzo", referring to the unleavened bread eaten during Passover). Several important synagogues were located there, including the Schiff Shul, the Leopoldstädter Tempel, the Türkischer Tempel, the Polnische Schul, and the Pazmanitentempel, as well as yeshivas.
  None of the synagogues escaped the destruction during the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 1938 following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. A fragment of a Torah scroll was saved by Heschel Messias from one of the synagogues as it burned. The Jewish population was increasingly isolated and terrorised and was finally deported and exterminated in concentration camps such as Auschwitz. The once thriving communal life was completely destroyed. Only a handful of survivors were able to hide until the end of the war, from an original population of several thousands.
  With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, and renewed immigration from Eastern Europe, especially the former Soviet Union, the Jewish population of Leopoldstadt was able to grow again. Today, many members of Vienna's Jewish community live there again, and there are a number of shops selling kosher food. Several parts of the old residential areas have been gentrified, resulting in a gentle shift from Leopoldstadt's traditional, predominantly working class roots towards a somewhat wealthier population.
caption: Ultra-Orthodox Jews at the Karmelitermarkt [de] in Leopoldstadt during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1915. The once flourishing Viennese Jewish culture was destroyed during the Holocaust.
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