The Jewish Community
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The modern Jewish community of Vienna was established during the 18th century by prominent Court Jews, such as Samuel Oppenheimer and  Samson Wertheimer. In the early 19th century, first under the leadership of Michel Lazar Biedermann (1769-1843), and then under Isaak Noah Mannheimer, the community, and especially the synagogues, began to pursue a reform course. Sermons were in German, but the liturgy remained in Hebrew. Rabbi Mannheimer invited the widely acclaimed cantor and composer Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890) to Vienna, who remained at the synagogue from 1838-1857.

The edict of 1848 granted Jews in Austria greater freedom and much tax relief, and full civil rights, including the right to own land, only occurred in 1867 under Emperor Franz Joseph I. During his reign the Jewish Community of Vienna expanded considerably as Jews from the Eastern provinces settled there after residential restrictions were lifted.

Despite the influx of Jewish newcomers, Judaism lost a considerable number of adherents through assimilation and conversion. About 1000 Jews left Judaism annually, including the Goldscheider family, who converted to Christianity around 1900. Judaism remained the third largest religious group in Austria-Hungary, making up about 10% of the population in Vienna and 11.1% in Galicia, according to the Jewish census of 1900.

When Nazi Germany annexed Austria on March 13, 1938, about 183,000 Jews belonged to the Vienna Jewish Community.  In less than one year the Nazis introduced discriminatory laws, employed ruthless terror and organized mass arrests, particularly of the affluent and the intellectuals, who were detained in special camps or sent to Dachau. During Kristallnacht [November 9-10, 1938], 42 synagogues in Austria were destroyed, and hundreds of apartments were ransacked by members of the SA and Hitler Youth. By October 1939, only 100,000 Jews remained in Vienna; in 1941 deportations to the camps began. The Jewish Community was dissolved in November 1942.