A Journey in Jewish History by Matterhorn Travel / 2012
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“There is
properly no
history - only
biography”
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
Emerson’s dictum may be overstated, but it is nevertheless true that history is made - for better or worse - by the leadership of individuals.
Over the centuries, there have been few times, if any, where so many dominant individuals - both good and evil - were in the same city at about the same time, as in Vienna during the two decades before the collapse of European civilization in 1914. (The founding Fathers of the United States, coming together in the late 18th Century, would be an example.) Such a list of Vienna residents would include Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Franz Kafka, Josef Broz (Tito), Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler.
Although our journey of Jewish history will begin in the Middle Ages, our emphasis will be on the Fin de Siecle period (late 19th and early 20th century) in Vienna. At a time when Berlin was hardly a generation removed from being a Prussian garrison town, and Paris was torn apart by the Dreyfus Affair, Vienna was considered the most civilized city on the continent of Europe. Vienna, it was thought, had a stable, secure heart - that beat in 3/4 waltz time. This was of course a myth.
The great majority of turn of the century Viennese culture was promoted, nourished, and even created by Viennese Jews. More than half of Vienna’s physicians and dentists were Jews; more than 60% of the city’s lawyers were Jews. Unlike their less fortunate brethren in the shtetls of Russia, Jews in Vienna had no fear of pogroms and were able to enter into the middle class.
The first Jewish museum in the world was founded in Vienna in 1895.
As in Germany, the goal of Habsburg Empire Jews was assimilation into the overall society. Approaches to assimilation were varied. Gustav Mahler converted to Catholicism to secure his appointment as Music Director of the Vienna State Opera. Sigmund Freud remained a Jew, but, denied a position of professor at the University of Vienna because he was a Jew, kept his newly created field of psychoanalysis outside the anti-Semitic hostility of the university establishment. Theodor Herzl, a pro-German assimilationist in his early career, saw that assimilation was futile and turned to Zionism as the solution for European Jewry.
Our journey will explore the Worlds of Yesterday by focusing on individuals who were present in those worlds and who, then or later, created and dominated the world that followed.
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Round trip transatlantic flights
deluxe hotels
Dinner eight evenings
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The
History
of the
Jews in
Budapest,
Vienna,
Prague
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Day 1. Fly from your departure city to Budapest.
Day 2. Budapest
Arrive Budapest in the morning, local time. Upon arrival we will be met and transferred to our hotel.
This afternoon we will enjoy a brief panorama tour of Budapest. Budapest is a combination of the two old towns of Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube. The highlight of our tour will be a magnificent view of the city and river from the Fisherman’s Bastion in the Buda hills.
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| Budapest and the Danube |
Day 3. Budapest.
This morning we’ll hear a lecture by Dr. Brigitte Timmermann on Jewish history in Hungary.
Our Jewish heritage tour will begin at the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world (after Temple Emanu-El in New York City.) To see the beautiful interior of the Synagogue is by itself worth a visit to Budapest.
Franz Liszt played the Synagogue’s organ. The Synagogue has become a symbol of Hungarian Judaism and its tradition.
Next to the Synagogue is the Jewish Museum. The Museum is located on the site of the house of Theodor Herzl and his family. Herzl, born in Budapest, lived in the house until the family moved to Vienna in 1878.
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The
Raoul
Wallenberg
Sculpture,
Budapest. |
We will visit the Museum and its small but impressive collection of Jewish history and artifacts.
We will see the memorial statue of Raoul Wallenberg.
See the Tree of Life in Raoul Wallenberg Park. A plaque marks the spot where the gate of the Budapest Ghetto stood in 1944-45.
We will also visit the orthodox Kazinczy Street Synagogue and the conservative Rumbach Street Synagogue.
The balance of the day is at leisure.
Day 4. Eisenstadt- Vienna
This morning we will leave Budapest, cross into Austria, and arrive at Eisenstadt. Today, Eisenstadt is known largely as the home of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), who lived there for 29 years under the sponsorship and support of the Esterhazy family.
But Jews lived in Eisenstadt as early as 1373, and in 1626 the Jewish community came under the protection of the same Esterhazy family. During the 19th century, Eisenstadt was so well known as a center of Jewish residence, learning and culture that it was referred to as “Little Jerusalem.” After World War I, Eisenstadt remained the only Jewish community in Europe to have the status of a political community (until 1938).
We will walk through the former Jewish ghetto, visit the Jewish Museum and the synagogue which survived Kristallnacht. The Museum covers Jewish history in Austria from Roman times to the Third Reich.
We will also visit the Esterhazy Palace and its concert hall. After lunch (not included), we will continue to Vienna, arriving in the late afternoon.
Dinner this evening is at our hotel.
Day 5. Vienna
Vienna is a must for anyone seeking the Old Europe. This elegant city along the Danube, for centuries a center of music, art and culture, remains one of the richest treasures of Europe. This morning enjoy a tour of Vienna. Drive along the broad, tree-lined Ringstrasse, one of the most beautiful streets in Europe. See the University, the magnificent architecture of the Rathaus (City Hall), the Russian War Memorial, and of course the Opera House, perhaps the most famous opera house in Europe. See the Hofburg, the vast imperial palace of the Hapsburg rulers, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a Vienna landmark for more than 1,000 years.
JEWISH VIENNA I
Few cities in Europe have a history so closely related to Jewish history as Vienna. Jews have been in Vienna since the late 12th century. By the 14th century, the Jewish community of Vienna was the leading community of German-speaking Jewry.
Beginning this afternoon, we will have five separate tours of Jewish history and culture.
This afternoon we will walk in Vienna’s medieval Jewish quarter (Vienna did not have a ghetto.) We will visit the City Temple Synagogue (built 1824-26), the only surviving synagogue from before World War II.
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House of
Prayer
in the
Judenstrasse
(Jewish
Street),
Vienna,
1933
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We’ll see the Holocaust Memorial at Judenplatz and visit the Jewish Museum containing the foundation ruins of the synagogue destroyed in 1421. We’ll visit the Documentation Centre of the Austrian Resistance Movement focusing on the rise of Nazism in Austria, the 1938 Anschluss, exile, and the persecution and murder of Austrian Jews.
Dinner this evening is at the Café Central, Vienna’s most famous coffee house restaurant.
The coffee house has been a Viennese institution for three centuries. According to legend, the first coffee house opened with Turkish coffee beans, part of the spoils from the Siege of Vienna in 1683.
Café Central opened in 1860, and in the late 19th century it became a popular meeting place of Vienna intellectuals. Among its regulars were Theodor Herzl, Sigmund Freud, Josip Broz Tito, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky
Day 6. Vienna
JEWISH VIENNA II
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“Tradition
is the
verification
of the
fire,
not the worship of the ashes.” Gustav Mahler, (1860-1911) |
After our lecture this morning, we will follow the path of Gustav Mahler and visit the Vienna State Opera House, among the most famous opera houses in the world. We will have a guided tour of the opera house to learn about the performances and savor the beauty of this magnificent building. Mahler was Music Director for ten years, 1897 to 1907.
“If Music be the
Food of Love,
play on.”
Shakespeare
Next, we will visit the House of Music. How is sound formed? What color is it? What exactly is music? Why did so many composers live in Vienna?
The House of Music, located in a former Hapsburg palace, offers a wealth of information about music and the great composers. The Vienna Philharmonic was founded at the palace in 1842. Learn about the history of this world class orchestra from its infancy to the present. As a highlight of our visit, you can “conduct” (virtually) the Vienna Philharmonic.
JEWISH VIENNA III
“Memory is the
key word which
combines past
and present,
past and future.
Remembering
means that we
must renew
our belief in
humanity, as a
challenge to
humanity, and
thus to give
meaning to our
weak endeavours.”
Elie
Wiesel
This afternoon we will visit the Jewish Museum in the Dorortheergasse. Tradition and remembrance are keys to Jewish culture; these themes are reflected in the two buildings of Vienna’s Jewish Museum.
At the Albertina Platz we will see the Memorials Against War and Fascism — a monument dedicated to all victims of World War II and Nazi terror.
The Habsburgs ruled over Austria and much of Europe for more than six centuries, 1278 to 1918. Life for the Jews in the Habsburg territories, whether under a regime of permissiveness or persecution, depended on the attitude of the ruler at any given time.
We will visit Imperial Vienna, the Hofburg, seat of government of the Habsburg emperors. We will focus on the unsettled relationship over the centuries between the Hapsburg rulers and their Jewish subjects.
This evening is at leisure to sample one of Vienna’s restaurants on your own.
Day
7. Vienna
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| Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) |
After our lecture this morning, we will visit the Sigmund Freud Museum where Freud lived and practiced psychoanalysis, from 1891 to 1938, bringing a new understanding of the human psyche. Psychoanalytic terms such as Freudian slip, Oedipus complex, and ego have become part of our everyday language. We will have a guided tour of this iconic site of humanistic discovery.
For lunch (not included), you may wish to sample another of Vienna’s coffee house restaurants. Café Mozart, behind the Opera House, is frequented by artists, writers, and musicians.
“Do you suppose
that some day a
marble tablet
will be placed
on the house,
inscribed with
these words: “In
this house on
July 24th, 1895,
the Secret of
Dreams was
revealed to Dr.
Sigmund Freud.”
Sigmund
Freud to Wilhelm
Fliess, June 12,
1900
JEWISH VIENNA V
This afternoon we will have a walking tour of Leopoldstadt in Vienna’s 2nd District. Leopoldstadt, from the mid-19th century until 1938, was the center of Jewish life in Vienna. Some of Vienna’s leading synagogues were in the district. Among Leopoldstadt residents were Freud, Herzl, Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, and Arthur Schnitzler. Part of our walk follows the “Path of Remembrance” commemorating the Jewish victims of Nazi terror.
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Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)
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The idea I have developed is an ancient one: It is the restoration of the Jewish State...The decisive factor is our propelling force. And what is that force? The plight of the Jews...
We are a people — one people.
We have sincerely tried everywhere to merge with the national communities in which we live, seeking only to preserve the faith of our fathers. It is not permitted us. In vain are we loyal patriots, sometimes superloyal; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow citizens; in vain do we strive to enhance the fame of our native lands in the arts and sciences, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In our native lands where we have lived for centuries, we are still decried as aliens, often by men whose ancestors had not yet come at a time when Jewish sighs had long been heard in the country...
Oppression
and persecution
cannot
exterminate us.
No nation on
earth has
endured such
struggles and
sufferings as we
have. Wherever
we remain
politically
secure for
any length of
time, we
assimilate. I
think this is
not
praiseworthy...
Palestine is our unforgettable historic homeland...
Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), 1896
Dinner is included this evening at the Piarstenkeller
Day 8. Vienna
Full day at
leisure in
Vienna.
Some suggestions
1. Visit the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments at the Hofburg, one of the finest displays of renaissance music instruments in the world. Pianos belonging to Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert are included in the collection.
2. Visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum and its magnificent collection of paintings and sculpture. Among its treasures are the Velazquez portraits of the Habsburgs, and Brueghel’s lively studies of peasant life. Go next door to the Museum of Natural History to see the 20,000-year old figurine, the “Venus of Willendorf”.
3. Take a closer look at the Hofburg, a city within a city containing over 2600 rooms, many of which are now used for the Austrian President’s office. The jewel of the Hofburg is the Imperial Treasury, the greatest collection of gems, paintings, robes, vestments and other valuables in the world. Visit the Imperial apartments and the chapel. Another building houses the famous Spanish Riding School.
4. Visit the Mozart House in the Domgasse, where Mozart lived for three years and where he composed “The Marriage of Figaro.”
Our last evening in Vienna will be light-hearted. We’ll enjoy dinner, followed by music from Mozart and Johann Strauss, at the Kursalon. Overlooking the City Park, the Kursalon was built in 1867 and became one of Vienna’s most popular concert halls. Johann Strauss conducted many times in the Kursalon; the famous statue of Strauss in the park is only one hundred yards from the Kursalon.
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| The Kursalon, Vienna. We will have dinner here, followed by a concert of music from Mozart and Johann Strauss. |
Day 9. Trebic-Prague.
This morning we
will depart
Vienna and enter
the Czech
Republic.
Enroute to
Prague, we’ll
stop in Trebic.
The former
Jewish ghetto in
Trebic is among
the best
preserved Jewish
quarters in
Europe. We will
see the
assemblage of
the original 123
houses, the
Jewish Town
Hall, Rabbinate,
School,
Hospital, Poor
House, and the
old Jewish
Cemetery with
about 3000
tombstones.
Not far from Trebic, we will visit the medieval village of Telc. Both Trebic and Telc are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
We will arrive in Prague in the late afternoon.
Goethe called Prague “the most precious stone in the crown of the world”. Prague escaped damage during World War II and is the best preserved capital of Eastern Europe.
Dinner this evening is at the Pilsen Restaurant of the Prague Municipal House. Built in 1911, the Municipal House is the major art nouveau building in Prague.
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Prague
and its
bridges
over the
Moldau. The Moldau and Israel The River Moldau was immortalized in the symphonic poem of Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. The melody of the Israel national anthem Hatikvah, written by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from the Czech lands in 1888, can be traced to Smetana’s Die Moldau, composed in 1874. Die Moldau can be heard as background music at the Smetana Museum in Prague, overlooking the Moldau near our hotel. |
Day 10. Prague - Theresienstadt.
This morning
we’ll have a
brief panorama
tour of Prague.
Prague was once
five individual
towns consisting
of the Old Town,
Castle Town,
Little Town and
Jewish Town -
which together
compose one of
the outstanding
architectural
experiences in
Europe.
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| Clock with Hebrew dial atop the Jewish Town Hall in Prague |
The five hills comprising the city as it is today are connected by 11 bridges spanning the Moldau River. The famous Charles Bridge dates back to 1357 and is decorated with 30 statues. We will see Wenceslas Square and the medieval tower hall with its famous astronomical clock.
Jews have lived in Prague since 970 A.D. Until 1939, Prague was for many centuries one of the most important Jewish centers in Europe. In the early 18th century more Jews lived in Prague than anywhere else in the world.
We will visit the Old New Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Europe. Built in the late 13th century, it was originally called the New Synagogue. When other synagogues were built in the 16th century, the 13th century synagogue became known as the Old New Synagogue.
This afternoon we will visit the old Jewish ghetto and former Nazi concentration camp at Theresienstadt.
This evening is at leisure to sample one of Prague’s restaurants on your own.
Day 10. Prague
This morning we
will visit the
Jewish Museum.
The Museum
exhibits are
located in six
historic sites.
MAISEL SYNAGOGUE: Originally built in 1590-92, the Maisel exhibit traces the history of Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from the 10th to 18th centuries, together with silver religious antiques, manuscripts and prints.
SPANISH SYNAGOGUE: Built in 1868, the Synagogue takes its name from the Moorish stucco decoration of its interior imitating the style widely used in Spain. The exhibit continues the narrative of the Maisel, covering Jewish history in the Czech lands from the 18th to the 20th century.
KLAUSEN SYNAGOGUE: Completed in 1694, the Klausen was the largest synagogue in the ghetto. The exhibit features Jewish Customs and Traditions - birth, circumcision, bar mitzvah, wedding , divorce, and the Jewish household.
PINKAS SYNAGOGUE: Founded in 1535, the Pinkas was rebuilt in the 17th century. Today it serves as a memorial to the 77,297 Czech and Slovak Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The names of the victims and their communities are inscribed on the synagogue walls.
OLD JEWISH CEMETERY AND CEREMONIAL HALL: Established around 1440, the Old Jewish Cemetery is among the best preserved Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Burials took place here until 1781. The Ceremonial Hall, built in 1911-12, contains the sequel to the Jewish Customs and traditions exhibit at the Klausen Synagogue.
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“Every
revolution
evaporates
and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.” Franz Kafka (1883-1924). |
This afternoon we will visit Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in the world. The Castle is the symbol of Czech statehood and has been home to the royal throne since 990 A.D.
Next, we will visit the Kafka Museum near the Charles Bridge. Franz Kafka was among the most important writers of the 20th century. His family was among the German speaking, upwardly mobile Jewish elite of the Habsburg Empire. Indeed, he was named after the Emperor Franz Joseph. Unlike Mahler, Kafka remained a Jew his entire life. As with Freud, Kafka’s influence has been so pervasive that the word Kafkaesque has entered our language to denote the subjugation of the individual by the impersonal bureaucracy of an amoral government or large corporation. The feelings of angst, alienation and loneliness, expressed frequently in 20th century philosophy, have their roots in the writings of Kafka.
Our farewell evening in Europe includes dinner and music. We’ll reflect on the triumphs as well as the tragedies of yesterday, while savoring the successes of today and anticipating the joys of tomorrow.
Day 12.
This morning we
will be
transferred to
Prague Airport
to board our
return flight to
the U.S. Arrive
back in the U.S.
in the
afternoon.
Ashkenazi Defined
Ashkenazi Jews are those Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland in the west of Germany. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for the region which in modern times encompasses Germany and the German speaking borderland area. Thus, Ashkenazi (Ashkenazim, Hebrew plural) or Ashkenazi Jews are literally “German Jews.”
Many Ashkenazi Jews migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in non-German speaking areas, including Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and Eastern Europe between the 10th and 19th centuries. They took with them and diversified Yiddish, a Germanic Jewish language among Ashkenazi Jews.
Although in the 11th century Ashkenazi Jews comprised only about three percent of the world’s Jewish population, by 1931 they accounted for (at their peak) about 92% of world Jewry. Today, Ashkenazi Jews make up about 80% of Jews world wide. Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, except those in the Mediterranean region.
The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Askenazim, particularly Eastern Ashkenazim. This is especially true in the United States, where six million of the seven million American Jews – the largest Jewish population in the world – are Ashkenazi. They represent the largest single concentration of Ashkenazim in the world.
In an ethnic context the definition of an Ashkenazi Jew broadened; such a Jew became one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.
Historians' Brief Biographical Sketches
Budapest—Vienna
Brigitte
Timmerman, Ph.D.
– Brigitte is a
Viennese
historian,
lecturer, and
professional
guide with a
Ph.D. in
History, MA in
English, and
MEdu in English
and History from
the University
of Vienna. Her
specialty is
Jewish history
in Europe.
Brigitte has
over 35 years of
teaching
experience, and
has worked for
more than
20 years as a
guide and
director of a
European study
tours company.
She has that
special
enthusiasm for
sharing with
others her
knowledge and
love of Vienna.
Prague
Sylvie Wittmannova – Sylvie is a graduate of the Theology Faculty at the Charles University of Prague and has studied Jewish history at the University of Indiana and University of California, Berkeley.
Sylvie is the founder of a Jewish oriented cultural and educational guide service in Prague; she also founded Beit Simcha, the first liberal Jewish community in the Czech Republic after the fall of the Communist regime. She has served as an officer and board member of the Foundation of Czech Jewish Communities.
Sylvie has lectured at the San Francisco Chapter of Hadassah, and at Synagogues in the United States and Israel.
Other historians may also participate.
Organizations are welcome to bring their own historian.
| Hotels | |
| Budapest |
Intercontinental
Danube View rooms |
| Vienna | DeFrance hotel on the Ring |
| Prague |
InterContinental
Deluxe higher rooms |
| Departures / 2012 | |
| Depart USA | Return |
| October 13 | October 24 |
