Seasoned activist Rabbiner Yaacov Frenkel dreams big for Austria’s Jews
By Binyamin Rose, Vienna
Photos: Ouriel Morgensztern
The streets of Vienna are paved with reminders of the Jewish life that once flourished in Austria’s capital.
This includes the Stolpersteine — literally “stumbling blocks,” copper plaques that gleam like gold when the sun strikes them. Elevated slightly above the sidewalks, the plaques are emblazoned with the names of Jews killed or deported by the Nazis in the Holocaust, and are situated near the homes they used to own.
Berggasse 19, in Vienna’s ninth district, is another Jewish landmark. Once the home and office of Sigmund Freud, the site is now a museum commemorating the life and times of the “father of psychoanalysis.” Freud was fortunate enough to flee to safety in England three months after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss.
Tour guides will always take their clientele to experience those aspects of Jewish Vienna. But there is one relatively new site that Rabbiner Yaacov Frenkel insisted was a must-see on my recent visit to Vienna, because it both tells a vivid tale of the city’s traumatic past while serving as a symbol of its revival.
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