Special to the JTA Seeking Support for Austrian Jewry

A special emissary of the Austrian Jewish community to American Jewry has just concluded a one-week series of meetings with Jewish leaders and representatives of Jewish organizations here to seek support and recognition for the growing role of Austrian Jewry as a cultural link between the Jews of East Europe and Jews of the free world.

Dr. Leon Zelman, head of the Jewish Welcome Service in Vienna, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency prior to his return to Vienna that there are some 12,000 Jews in Austria. He noted that although “we are a small community, we are important geopolitically. Vienna is an open window to East European Jews. It is important that they see the existence of a vibrant cultural and spiritual, Jewish life.” He said Jews in the Soviet bloc nations can learn about Jewish life in Austria via radio and television broadcasts.

Zelman, who said his organization is responsible for contacts with other Jewish organizations throughout the world, reported that he met here with leaders of the American Jewish community to make them understand that the Vienna Jewish community is active and that Jewish life there is thriving, a far cry from the first years after World War II when the Jewish community in Austria was almost exterminated by the Nazis and had no more than 235 members.

“We would like American Jewry to give us moral and spiritual support and to understand why Jews continue to live in Austria despite the horrors of the Holocaust,” he said.

Zelman said; in response to a question, that anti-Semitism still exists in certain segments of Austrian society, especially among the old generation. But the young generation in Austria, he pointed out, is clearly not anti-Semitic. He said that following the recent screening of the American TV series, “Holocaust,” in Austria, schools throughout the country are now required to teach the history of the Holocaust on order from the Education Ministry.