List of Austrian Jews

Austria first became a center of Jewish learning during the 13th century. However, increasing antisemitism led to the expulsion of the Jews in 1669. Following formal readmission in 1848, a sizable Jewish community developed once again, contributing strongly to Austrian culture. By the 1930s, some 300,000 Jews lived in Austria, most of them in Vienna. Following the Anschluss with Nazi Germany, most of the community emigrated or were killed in the Holocaust. The current Austrian Jewish population is 9,000.^[1] The following is a list of some prominent Austrian Jews. Here German-speaking Jews from the whole Habsburg Monarchy are listed.

Athletes

Margarete "Grete" Adler, swimmer, Olympic bronze (4x100-meter (m) freestyle relay)^[2]
Richard Bergmann, Austria/Britain table tennis player, 7x world champion, ITTFHoF
Albert Bogen (Albert Bógathy), fencer (saber), Olympic silver
Fritzi Burger, figure skater, 2x Olympic silver, 2x World Championship silver
Siegfried "Fritz" Flesch, fencer (sabre), Olympic bronze
Hans Haas, weightlifter, Olympic champion (lightweight), silver
Judith Haspel (born "Judith Deutsch"), Austrian-born Israeli swimmer, held every Austrian women's middle and long distance freestyle record in 1935, refused to represent Austria in 1936 Summer Olympics along with Ruth Langer and Lucie Goldner, protesting Hitler, stating, "I refuse to enter a contest in a land which so shamefully persecutes my people."^[3]
Dr. Otto Herschmann, fencer (saber), 2-Olympic-silver (in fencing/team sabre and 100-m freestyle); arrested by Nazis, and died in Izbica concentration camp
Nickolaus "Mickey" Hirschl, wrestler, 2x Olympic bronze (heavyweight freestyle and Greco-Roman)
Felix Kasper, figure skater, Olympic bronze
Klara Milch, swimmer, Olympic bronze (4x100-m freestyle relay)
Paul Neumann, swimmer, Olympic champion (500-m freestyle)
Fred Oberlander, Austrian, British, and Canadian wrestler; world champion (freestyle heavyweight); Maccabiah champion
Felix Pipes, tennis player, Olympic silver (doubles)
Maxim Podoprigora, Olympic swimmer
Ellen Preis, fencer (foil), 3x world champion (1947, 1949, and 1950), Olympic champion, 17x Austrian champion
Otto Scheff (born "Otto Sochaczewsky"), swimmer, Olympic champion (400-m freestyle) and 2x bronze (400-m freestyle, 1,500-m freestyle)
Josephine Sticker, swimmer, Olympic bronze (4x100-m freestyle relay)
Otto Wahle, Austria/US swimmer, 2x Olympic silver (1,000-m freestyle, 200-m obstacle race) and bronze (400-m freestyle); International Swimming Hall of Fame

Historical figures

Politicians

Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria from 1970 to 1983, agnostic
Ignaz Kuranda, politician^[4]
Joseph Redlich, politician, Minister of finance in the early 1930s.
Otto Bauer, Foreign Minister 1918-1919
Franz Klein, Minister of Justice 1906-1908, and in 1916

Academic figures

Lawyers

Fred F. Herzog, the only Jewish judge in Austria between the world wars, he fled to the United States and became the dean of two law schools.

Scientists

Carl Djerassi, chemist. Inventor of the pill
Sir Otto Frankel, geneticist [13]
Eric Kandel, neuroscientist. Winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Karl Koller, ophthalmologist; first to use cocaine as an anaesthetic [14]
Hans Kronberger (physicist), nuclear physicist^[5]
Robert von Lieben, physicist (Jewish father) [15]
Victor Frederick Weisskopf (1908–2002) physicist. During World War II, he worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, and later campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons^[6]
Max Perutz molecular biologist. Winner of 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists

Alfred Adler, founding member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and founder of the school of individual psychology
Anna Freud, Vienna-born child psychologist and daughter of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud, Moravian-born founder of psychoanalysis and neurologist^[7]
Marie Jahoda, psychologist [16]
Melanie Klein, psychotherapy^[8]
Wilhelm Reich, psychiatry and psychoanalysis^[9]
Viktor Frankl, Psychiatrist and psychologist

Social and political scientists

Samuel Bergman, philosopher^[10]
Paul Edwards, philosopher ^[17]
Heinrich Friedjung, Moravian historian and politician. ([18]; Encyclopaedia Judaica, article "Historians", list of "Prominent Jewish General Historians".)
Norbert Jokl, founder of Albanology^[11]
Otto Kurz, historian (Jewish Year Book 1975 p214)
Emil Lederer, economist^[12]
Ludwig von Mises, economist
Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher^[13]^[14] (of largely Jewish descent but given a Catholic burial)

Cultural figures

Film and stage

Rudolf Bing (1902–1997) opera impresario, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972^[15]
Fritz Grünbaum (1880-1941) cabaret artist, operetta and pop songwriter, director, actor and master of ceremonies
Alber Misak, actor^[16]
Kurt Kren (1929–1998) experimental filmmaker, director of the avant garde films 8/64: Ana – Aktion Brus, 10/65: Selbstverstümmelung, 10b/65: Silber – Aktion Brus, 16/67: 20. September, and 10c/65: Brus wünscht euch seine Weihnachten (Jewish father)
Reggie Nalder (1907-1991) cabaret dancer, stage, film and television actor
Joseph Schildkraut (1896-1964) stage and film actor

Musicians

Kurt Adler, (1907-1977) Bohemian born Austrian chorus master, conductor, pianist, author, Metropolitan Opera New York City, USA.^[17]
Ignaz Brüll, composer and pianist^[18]
Hanns Eisler, (1898-1962), composer and co-author (with Theodor W. Adorno) of Komposition für den Film (Jewish father)
Joseph Joachim, violinist (born in Kittsee, Austria, at that time Hungary)[19]
Hans Keller, musicologist^[19]
Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) violinist and composer, one of the most famous of his day^[20]
Erica Morini, violinist [20]
Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942) composer and pianist^[21]
Julius Schulhoff (1825–1898) pianist and composer^[22]
Rudolf Schwarz, conductor^[23]
Walter Susskind (1913–1980) conductor^[24]
Richard Tauber, singer and composer^[25]
Egon Wellesz, composer [21]

Composers

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer (born in Bohemia)^[26]
Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) violinist and composer, one of the most famous of his day^[20]
Gustav Mahler, Bohemian-born composer, conductor and pianist^[27]
Arnold Schoenberg (1871–1954), composer (born in Vienna). Founder of Second Viennese School, music theorist.

Writers

Peter Altenberg, writer and poet
Raphael Basch (1813-?), journalist & politician^[28]
Abraham Benisch (1814–1878) Hebraist and journalist; born Bohemia^[29]
Henri Blowitz, journalist^[30]
Boris Brainin (Sepp Österreicher), poet and translator^[31]
Fritz Brainin, poet^[32]
Bernard Friedberg, Hebraist, scholar and bibliographer^[33]
Elfriede Jelinek (b. 1946), Nobel prize-winning (2004) novelist (Jewish father).
Franz Kafka, writer
Paul Kornfeld (1889–1942) writer, author of many expressionist plays^[34]
Karl Kraus, author^[35]
Heinrich Landesmann, poet [22]
Robert Lucas, writer who emigrated to Britain in 1934
Joseph Roth, novelist and journalist
Felix Salten, Hungarian-born Austrian writer^[36]^[37]^[38]^[39]
Arthur Schnitzler, writer and physician
Alice Schwarz-Gardos (1915-2007), writer, journalist and editor-in-chief of Israel Nachrichten 1975-2007 de:Alice Schwarz-Gardos Israel-Nachrichten
Hugo Sonnenschein, Bohemian-born writer [23]
Franz Werfel, novelist and playwright
Alma Wittlin (1899-1992), art historian and museologist^[40]
Stefan Zweig, writer

Miscellaneous

Alfred Edersheim, Bible scholar^[41]
Rudolf Eisler (1873-1926), Jewish philosopher born in Vienna
Maurice de Hirsch, banker^[42]
Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, merchant^[43]
Gisela Januszewska (1867 - 1943), physician
Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907), bibliographer and Orientalist^[44]
George Weidenfeld, publisher [24]
Erich Erdstein, author of Inside the Fourth Reich, a book about his life as a Nazi hunter in South America^[45]
Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter^[46]

Others

Viktor Aptowitzer (July 16, 1871, Tarnopol, Galizien, - December 5, 1942, Jerusalem), Jewish theologian, Talmudist;[25] "two Austrian Jewish scholars - Samuel Krauss and Viktor Aptowitzer"
Rudolf Auspitz (July 7, 1837, Vienna - March 8, 1906, Vienna), Austrian politician, entrepreneur (Unternehmer) [26]
Joseph Samuel Bloch (November 20, 1850, Dukla, Galizien - October 1, 1923, Vienna), Austrian publicist, politician [27]
Ludo Moritz Hartmann, Austrian Jewish historian and statesman [28] " two lay Jews Ludo Moritz Hartmann"
Paul Hatvani, exactly Paul Hirsch (August 16, 1892, Vienna - November 9, 1975, Kew, near Melbourne), Austrian Jewish writer, chemist [29] "Paul Hatvani, a German Jewish refugee"

Footnotes

^ "Jewish Population of the World". Jewish Virtual Library. 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
^ The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium of Sports History and the 150 Greatest Jewish Sports Stars. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
^ "Diving into troubled waters", Paul Kalina, The Age, November 24, 2005, Retrieved January 1, 2011
^ [1] Accessed 8 Feb 2007.
^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Linz, Austria, of Jewish parents"
^ [2] "Growing up in Vienna in a well-to-do Jewish family..." [3] "One of the most brilliant Jewish scientists to be driven from Germany by Nazi persecution..."
^ [Gresser, Moshe. Dual Allegiance: Freud As a Modern Jew. SUNY Press, 1994, p. 225]
^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Vienna of Jewish parentage"
^ Gay, Miriam. "Reich, Wilhelm." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Eds. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Vol. 17. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 198-199. 22 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale.
^ Jewish Agency for Israel; The Hugo Bergmann family Papers; both accessed 11 March 2007
^ Biography of Ernest Koliqi, Shkoder.net Authors from Shkodra: "Norbert Jokl (1877-1942), the renowned Austrian Albanologist of Jewish origin" Accessed 8 Dec 2006.
^ JInfo list of economists accessed 17 May 2007
^ Jewish Chronicle, April 27, 2001 p.34: "he believed that, as a Jew, he was capable of only derivative thought."
^ Evening Standard (London), 24/5/2004, p15: "Born less than a week apart, Adolf Hitler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein attended the institution together. There is a haunting school photograph of the young, complex, Jewish philosopher just one row away from the most evil tyrant of the 20th century."
^ Bing - [4] Rudolf Bing... had been born a Jew in Vienna"
^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0592651/
^ Evelyne Adler-daughter
^ Jewish: "Contemporary Review, June, 1999 by Anthony Paterson" [5] "the Nazi ban on his compositions - he was Jewish" Accessed 6 Nov 2006.
born Moravia: "Composers of Classical Music" [6] "Brull, Ignaz 1846-1907 Moravia, Prossnitz - Austria, Vienna" Accessed 6 November 2006.
^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "he described himself as an 'unpious Jew'"
^ ^a ^b Kreisler - [7] "Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman... were all Jews, too"
^ School of Oriental and African Studies, Newsletter of the Jewish Music Institute "Erwin Schulhoff, a Czech Jew executed by the Nazis..." Accessed 8 Dec 2006.
^ Encyclopædia Britannica, 2nd ed., art. "Schulhoff, Julius": "Born in Prague"
^ Jewish Chronicle, February 16, 2007, p.14: "he carried on as the sole Jewidh conductor of the Kulturbund"
^ Bach cantatas site "The distinguished Czech-born English conductor" Lake Placid Film Forum "Walter Susskind, a German Jew" Both accessed 4 Jan 2007
^ "The Penguin Dictionary of Musical Performers", Arthur Jacobs, ISBN 0-14-051160-1, "Under threat as a Jew from Nazi persecution, settled in Britain, 1938."
^ Korngold Society: "he got thrown out of Vienna because he was Jewish" Jessica Duchen, author of E. Korngold's biography; Korngold Society: "BRNO, where the composer was born"; accessed 6 Feb 2007.
^ ["Gustav Mahler Dies in Vienna". The New York Times. 18 May 1911. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/105027769.pdf. Retrieved 1 July 2011. PDF format]
^ Jewish Encyclopedia, "born at Prague"; accessed 3 Dec 2006.
^ British Concise Dictionary of National Biography
^ Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., art. "Blowitz, Henri
^ Boris Brainin
^ Fritz Brainin
^ Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "FRIEDBERG, BERNARD". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved Dec/25/13. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
^ [8] "German-Jewish writers: Paul Kornfeld"
^ The Literary Encyclopedia: "Karl Kraus was born in Jicin (or Gitschin), Czechoslovakia (then a part of Austria-Hungary) into a Jewish family." Accessed 8 Feb 2007.
^ [9] "Hungarian writer Felix Salten" [10] "Hungarian/Austrian Jewish writer Felix Salten"
^ [11] "Everyone knows Walt Disney's Bambi. Far fewer know that the author of the original book was the Austrian writer, Felix Salten."
^ [12] "..Austrian novelist and journalist..."
^ Odds & Ends, June 1998
^ "Alma S. Wittlin (1899-1992) Preliminary remarks on the life and scholarship of an Austrian émigré" (PDF). Institute of Modern Languages Research.
^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born of Jewish parents at Vienna"
^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "His grandfather Jacob had established the family as one of the first Jewish families to acquire great wealth and social acceptability in Bavaria ... His mother came from an Orthodox Frankfurt family and ensured that the children were properly instructed in Jewish matters ... He was a citizen of Austria-Hungary at his death."
^ Jewish Encyclopedia "born June 10, 1759, at Prostiebor, near Kladrau, in the district of Pilsen, Bohemia" accessed 8 Feb 2007
^ Jewish Encyclopedia
^ Bean Barbara, Erdstein Erich (1978). Inside the Fourth Reich : the real story of The boys from Brazil. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 220. ISBN 0-312-41885-X.
^ "Simon Wiesenthal Center convicted of defamation by Paris court". European Jewish Press. 13 March 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2013.