2023 Vienna-Prague Study Seminar

2023 Seminar is FULL! If you would like to be considered for 2023 waitlist submit your application soon!

 

What are some of the first names that come to mind when we think of Vienna? Freud, Mahler, Zweig…all twentieth century (Jewish) cultural icons.

  We will be Visiting Vienna’s Jewish and non-Jewish sites as well as the Mauthausen & Hartheim Concentration camps. In Prague we will explore the rich Jewish culture through the many medieval synagogues there. We will also tour the Castle and the Old Town of Prague and explore the many Art-Nouveau architectural treasures. In 1933, there were some 250,000 Jews living in Austria. By 1945 less than 10,000 Austrian Jews had survived the Holocaust in hiding or in the Camps. Half of the Commandants of the Nazi extermination camps were Austrian! After the War, Austrian courts managed to acquit the majority of Nazi war criminals. Come join our Vienna-Prague Study Seminar as we examine the history of Austro-Hungarian Jewry with a special emphasis on Austria and Czechoslovakia. We will dive deeply into what transpired before, during and after the War. Our aim is to follow the trajectory of Austrian collaboration, denial and finally contrition for their actions during the Holocaust. Our seminar will also delve into the major contributions that Austrian and Czech Jews made to their homelands and to the world. Finally, we will  examine where these two Central European countries stand with regards to current antisemitism, their relationship to Israel and how they deal with contemporary moral crises such as the Ukrainian refugee situation. For more information, please email [email protected]