Jewish Museum Vienna

[3] The museum focused on the culture and history of the Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially in Vienna and Galicia, while its collection of objects from the British Mandate of Palestine also reflected the political debate about Zionism at that time.

On 31 December 1964 a small Jewish museum was opened in the newly built Desider-Friedmann-Hof in Tempelgasse 3, but received scarcely any public attention.

In 1993 Austrian collector Martin Schlaff presented to the city of Vienna his collection of antisemitica, containing about 5,000 objects, and covering a period from 1490 to 1946, so that they could be catalogued and prepared for a major exhibition.

In 1995/1996 the Palais Eskeles adapted for the museum by the Viennese team of architects eichinger oder knechtl to create more display spaces, increase storage, and add a coffee house and a specialist bookshop.

The exhibition space, opened on 25 October 2000, is smaller than Dorotheergasse, and thoroughly modern in construction, with ample light, polished concrete features and underground corridors that lead the visitor all the way down to 4.5 meters below street level, to the underlying foundations of the medieval synagogue.

[9] To accommodate the new direction of the museum, Spera made the immediate renovation of the Dorotheergasse premises a priority, launching an intensive fundraising effort both from official sources in Austria and from the Jewish diaspora especially in the United States.

A museum employee took pictures and sent them to curator blogs[10] and the local media,[11] creating a furore about what critics said was the destruction of cultural artifacts.

On 19 October 2011 the museum opened to great public interest in the new premises, while the temporary exhibition "Bigger than life - 100 years of Hollywood" that focused on Jewish Austrian contribution to the U.S. film industry, was described as a real crowd puller.

A big event space was created in the second floor and a small exhibition, "From Aleph to Tav - From the beginning to the end", showcases the Jewish life cycle through museum items and everyday objects.

Since its re-opening, the museum has attracted record number of visitors,[14] both to its regular exhibitions and to its evening program of events featuring visiting artists and film projections.

The exhibition tracks the history of Vienna's Jews as a key part of the cultural, financial and emotional life of the Austrian capital for centuries, but with particular emphasis on the years from 1945 to the present day, and the slow but steady flourishing of the decimated community.