[Leica] IMG: Vienna's Judenplatz

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Peter,
I live and learn every day. Thanks for the enlightenment!

It seems to me, unfortunately, a more radical thought today than a
generation ago. IMHO, unfettered Social Media has had a major role to play
in this hardening tribalization, whether by religion or politics (two
sides, really, of the same coin).

Cheers
Jayanand

On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 3:27 PM, Peter Klein <boulanger.croissant at 
gmail.com>
wrote:

> If any one place can symbolize the struggle between tolerance and
> intolerance in Europe, the Judenplatz in Vienna is a worthy candidate. At
> one end of the square is a statue of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a key
> Enlightenment writer and philosopher, and pioneering dramatist of the
> German-speaking world.
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563 at N04/35910082945/in/
> dateposted-public/>
>
> Lessing's play "Nathan the Wise," set during the Third Crusade, was a plea
> for religious tolerance. The title character was based on Lessing's
> lifelong friend Moses Mendelssohn, today considered the spiritual father of
> liberal Judaism. Other characters are the Sultan Saladin and a Knight
> Templar.  They discuss which of their three religions is the true one.
> Lessing's answer: "Of this you may be sure: Your father loved you all, and
> it was his ardent wish that all of you should love one another." This was
> such a radical idea that the Church banned the play during Lessing's
> lifetime.  In some quarters, it is still a radical idea.
>
> Now let's turn around with our backs to the statue. We see this:
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563 at N04/35869709356/in/
> dateposted-public/>
>
> This is the Holocaust memorial, in the form of a library turned
> inside-out, dedicated to the more than 65,000 Austrian Jews killed by "the
> Nazis" between 1938 and 1945.
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563 at N04/35910083045/in/
> dateposted-public/>
>
> Behind and to the right of the memorial, you can see a building with
> several traffic barrier posts in front. This is the Jewish museum and
> community center. Such barriers, which surround most Jewish synagogues,
> schools and institutions in Europe, are a reminder of the real threat of
> terrorism. We could hear children singing Hebrew songs inside. The guard
> became *very* nervous when anyone walked near the barriers.
>
> The Judenplatz was the center of Viennese Jewish life during the Middle
> Ages. Until 1420-21, when Archduke Albert V instituted a series of
> persecutions against the community of 1400-1600 Jews. It culminated in the
> last 200 surviving Jews burned at the stake, all Jewish property
> confiscated, and Jews banned from Austria.  The Holocaust Memorial sits
> atop the foundation of the destroyed medieval synagogue.
>
> The statue of Lessing is the second one to stand in the square. The Nazis
> tore down the first one and melted it down for munitions.
>
> "Nathan the Wise" was playing at Vienna's Volkstheater during our visit.
> With supratitles in English and Arabic.
> <http://www.metropole.at/nathan-with-strings/>
>
> Today, who embraces Lessing's still-radical idea, and who its malignant
> opposite? It's a question we need to ask, and keep asking.
>
> --Peter
>
>
>
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