A city that was a center of culture, finance, and political power. with a large and thriving Jewish community elected an antisemitic mayor. The impact on two residents of that city would change the Jewish world forever.  What are the lessons we can learn from that today?

The city was Vienna.  In the early 19th century, it was the hub of European power politics.  The 1815 Congress of Vienna established a new order for Europe after the defeat of Napoleon. Culture, especially music, thrived in the hometown of Mozart and Beethoven.  Austria, like most of Europe confined Jews to ghettoes and limited the number of professions in which Jews could engage.  Jews were impoverished and on the margins of society.

In 1848, revolutions broke out throughout Europe.  Many Jews participated, believing that a new liberal order would lead to the emancipation of the Jews and the integration of Jews into the wider society.  In Austria, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew Franz Josef.  A new Constitution for what would become the Austro – Hungarian Empire stated that in the future civic and political rights would not be dependent on religion.  In 1849, Franz Josef permitted the establishment of an autonomous Jewish Community.  In 1860 Jews were permitted to own land and engage in all professions.  By 1867, all barriers to Jewish participation in Austro – Hungarian life had been removed.  In 1882, Franz Josef told his ministers, “I will tolerate no Jew baiting in my empire.”

A golden age for Viennese Jewry ensued.  Jews became doctors, lawyers, professors, civil servants, bankers, and financiers.  Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and others helped transform Vienna into a center of literature, art, and culture. In 1895, the first Jewish Museum in Europe opened in Vienna.  Yet anti-Semitism still lurked.  Many in the working class of Vienna resented Jewish success and blamed Jews for taking their jobs.

Stepping into a situation where Jews were ingrained in the fabric of Viennese life, but anti-Semitism was rampant was Karl Lueger.  He incited the working-class masses and gained the support of those in the middle and upper class who stood to gain by Jews being put in their place.  Lueger accused Jewa as having a disproportionate addiction to monetary profits,” and “expropriation of the Indigenous population.”  In 1895, Lueger’s Christian Social Party won two thirds of the seats in the Vienna Municipal Council and Lueger was elected Mayor.  Franz Josef vetoed his election.  For two years, the council continued to elect Lueger while Franz Josef vetoed the elections.  Finally, in 1897, Franz Josef relented and Lueger became Mayor.

Many people remember Lueger as one of Vienna’s greatest Mayors.  He built hospitals, schools, roads, gas, electricity, and water lines, and the first modern public transportation system.  Yet anti-Semitism was at the heart of his political persona.  Quotas were instituted for Jews in civil service, high schools, and universities.  To head the Vienna Opera, Gustav Mahler, the Jewish composer converted to Catholicism.  Yet anti-Semitism continued to hound him, and he eventually moved to New York, where he would transform the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic into world class cultural institutions.

According to many historians, Lueger did not believe his own anti-Semitic rhetoric.  He had Jewish friends and visited synagogues.  There were jews who supported him politically.  Jewish life in Vienna continued to flourish as Jews relied on Franz Josef to protect them from the hatred of the masses.........

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