Over 每日大瓜鈥檚 winter break in 2025, the led a trip for its Straus Scholars to Vienna, Austria, where they examined its historical and current Jewish community through the prism of Torah and Western Thought.
The program began with Straus Center Director Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik delivering a lecture on 鈥淭he Light of the Torah and the Enlightenment: Jewish Ideas in German-Speaking Lands鈥 at Chabad House of Vienna. As he noted, 鈥淭o visit Vienna is unlike anything else on Earth. The buildings from the Hapsburg empire still stand.鈥 But in the waning days of World War I, Vienna went from being a city of emperors to being a small city in a regular country. Surveying the story of modern Vienna, Rabbi Soloveichik examined its notable Jewish figures. He discussed Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, whose play Nathan the Wise (1779) presented a humanist worldview that valued religious freedom and equality, which was innovative in the German-speaking world at the time. The main character was modelled after the eminent German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, a dear friend of Lessing.
Rabbi Soloveichik then contrasted Lessing鈥檚 perspective with 鈥淥de to Joy鈥 (1785), written by Friedrich Schiller. The poem, used by Beethoven in his Ninth Symphony, claimed that 鈥淵ou, Joy, have done away with what prejudice has made. All men will become brothers under your protective wing.鈥 Though the Jews of Vienna embraced this universalistic mentality, they were often subject to the religious persecution and prejudice of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
So it was that the Viennese journalist Theodore Herzl was inspired to found the modern Zionist movement in the later years of the 1800s. He composed his essay, 鈥淭he Menorah,鈥 arguing that, as Rabbi Soloveichik put it, 鈥淛ews will only be accepted if we illuminate the outside world and proclaim monotheism - teaching of the one God that creates all humans.鈥 This lecture served to frame the rest of the trip, during which 鈥渨e will marvel at Vienna and mourn what occurred鈥 to its Jewish community over the 20th century.
The next day, the Straus Scholars toured the Austrian Parliament, and examined its history of shifting political parties, including Herzl鈥檚 Zionist party and a proudly antisemitic one. On more than a few occasions, duels were fought and the police had to be called in over intra-Parliamentary debates. Now, owning up to its history of anti-Jewish bias, the recently renovated Austrian Parliamentary Library boasts an interactive exhibit showcasing Jewish life in Vienna and arguing how Jew-hatred is anti-democratic. The exhibit is curated by Rifka Junger, the Parliament鈥檚 advisor on combatting antisemitism and a current 每日大瓜 graduate student in Jewish history. It offers a moving and meaningful means of addressing the current post-October 7th moment. The students then spoke with Jewish members of Parliament Dr. Martin Engelberg and David Pinchasov about the revival of Jewish life in today鈥檚 Vienna and the increasingly pro-Israel stance Austria鈥檚 political leadership has taken since the chancellorship of Sebastian Kurz and the formation of the Transatlantic Friends of Israel Caucus.
Rabbi Soloveichik then led the students on a walking tour of the city, highlighting the rise of the Hapsburgs as the group visited the Hofberg Palace, the Sisi Museum, and the National Library. He noted how the Hebrew liturgical poem 鈥淢elech Elyon,鈥 recited on the high holidays, strikingly contrasts the ephemeral nature of all earthly kingdoms, such as the Hapsburgs, who eventually fall from power, while God鈥檚 kingship remains eternal. At a plaque marking one of the residences of Herzl, Rabbi Soloveichik recounted the time Herzl met the renowned American author Mark Twain, who would later marvel at the miraculous story of Jewish survival and renewal.
The students then had lunch with Yaffa Olivitsky, the Israeli consul to Austria and an Orthodox Jew, who regaled the group with stories of her diplomatic adventures from Russia to Turkey before her current post in Vienna. Her commitment to her faith amidst her internationally diverse work and her commitment to Jewish peoplehood left a deep impression upon the students and faculty.
The trip then continued to the street where both Herzl and Freud lived, though they never met. At the Freud Museum, Rabbi Soloveichik lectured on 鈥淢asekhet Makkot, the Superego, and Mishpat Shlomo,鈥 and discussed the famed psychologist鈥檚 complex relationship with Judaism. Upon Freud鈥檚 death, his wife once more lit Shabbat candles, a practice her husband had forbidden her from performing when he was alive. Visiting the nearby Holocaust memorial and site of a massacre of Jews in 1421, the group prayed the afternoon service and paid their respects at the monuments, followed by a visit to the adjacent Jewish museum, which was curated by Martin Engelberg鈥檚 wife Danielle Spira, a renowned local broadcaster.
Over dinner that evening, Ms. Spira spoke to the students about the lay and political efforts that are key to Vienna鈥檚 currently positive relations between the local Jewish and Muslim community, in contrast to the antisemitic riots that have plagued other European cities. The Straus Center鈥檚 Dr. Shaina Trapedo then offered a brilliant lecture to the group titled 鈥溾業n Vienna, I have seen corruption boil and bubble鈥: The Politics of Biblical Translation in Shakespeare鈥檚 Measure for Measure.鈥 Rabbi Soloveichik closed the dinner, and the trip, by offering a reflection on dreams in Freudian thought, the writings of Winston Churchill, and biblical dreams ranging from Pharaoh鈥檚 to Solomon鈥檚. He argued that one can and should have dreams that reflect one鈥檚 sense of the future. 鈥淪ometimes they will rise or fall. But it is crucial to seize the moments, to be awake, when they present themselves, and realize their potential.鈥
