Vienna's Jewish Backround
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Vienna, the capital of Austria, went through an interesting Jewish history. In 1736 there was a small Sephardic population that began in Vienna, when the Hapsburg dominions under Maria Theresa were in charge. Ashkenazi Jews weren't really there until the next leader, Joseph II was in power of the Habsburg dynasty, around the 1760’s. Influenced by the Enlightenment that was spreading around Europe, a time of new ideas and philosophies, he decreed the Edict of Tolerance, which for the first time, Jews received the same rights as all other citizens. Jews though were still not able to practice their religion in public, even though Christians could. It wasn’t until the Revolution of 1848 that Jews were emancipated and given their own rights, and suddenly Jews from all over came to live in Vienna. The time that the Jewish population was at its highest percentage was in 1890, when 12% of the population was Jewish. In 1923, 11% of the population was Jewish, but there was a huge drop by 1951, Jews going from a tenth of the population to .5%, because most of them were killed or emigrated. That was around the time my great grandfather left because of the Nazis. Nearby locations such as Hungary and Switzerland provided refuge for him and other Jews. The Jewish population didn't really recover, and the Jewish population was at an all-time low by 1981, with Jews comprising .4% of cities. Today, there's about a million people, but only around 7000 jews.