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Khal Adas Yisroel, usually referred to as the Schiff Shul, was the main

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

prior to the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. The synagogue no longer exists since it was destroyed by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...

. A building that was adjacent to the Schiffshul and was part of its complex remains. A small

shul A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

currently exists in this building that is called ''Bet Hamidrasch Khal Chassidim'' and is led by Rabbi Avraham Yona Schwartz. The upper level of the building has been functioning as a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

since the 1940s and is headed by Rabbi

Michoel Pressburger Rabbi Michoel Pressburger (''Michael Pressburger'', he, מִיכָאֵל פרסבורגר‎, ) is a leading Austrian haredi rabbi who heads the historic Schiffschul synagogue in Vienna's second district where a sizable Haredi Jewish community ...

. It also serves as temporary spiritual refuge to thousands of Jewish refugees from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

who have transited through

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

over the past 30 years. There is a memorial plaque at this site that states "This Jewish place of worship was destroyed by the Nazis in the pogrom of November 1938." The Synagogue was located on Grosse Schiffgasse 8 in the second district of Vienna known as

Leopoldstadt Leopoldstadt (; bar, Leopoidstod, "Leopold-Town") is the 2nd municipal district of Vienna (german: 2. Bezirk) in Austria. there are 103,233 inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau (20th distr ...

History

With the constitution of the Israelitsche Cultus-Gemeinde (official Jewish Community) in 1852, the shul was established. The first rabbi was Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Spitzer (d. 1894) who was elected in 1852. He was a son in law of the

Chasam Sofer Moses Schreiber (1762–1839), known to his own community and Jewish posterity in the Hebrew translation as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work ''Chatam Sofer'', ''Chasam Sofer'', or ''Hatam Sofer'' ( trans. ''Seal of the Scribe'', and acron ...

1763-1839 (Rabbi Moshe Sofer). As such, the community had a direct connection to the

Pressburg Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

Orthodox Community. As the liberal contingent grew in influence Rabbi Spitzer led the observant

secessionist congregation to a new location, which was built from 1858 to 1864. The new synagogue counted 750 seats (500 for men, 250 for women). Rabbi Yeshaya Fuerst (d. 1943), succeeded Rabbi Spitzer in 1894. He was a disciple of the Ksav Sofer 1815-1872 (Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Binyamin Sofer) and he too had close ties to the Pressburg Orthodox Community. The

Cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

of the shul prior to the Holocaust was Avrohom Braun, who was hired in 1922. The shamash ( sexton) was Reb Hersh Lipschutz, who immigrated to the US, where he was active in the Vienner Shul.Interview on June 7, 2009, in Brooklyn, New York, with Rabbi Hersh M. Ginsberg, who lived in Vienna as a child before the Holocaust With the approach of the Holocaust and the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

, in March 1938, Rabbi Fuerst fled for his life from Vienna and died in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1943.http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/31737/Rabbi_Gershon_Tannenbaum_My_Machberes.html Some members of the persecuted community succeeded in reaching

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and settled in

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

. These refugees reestablished a kernel of the Vienner community in the then Agudath Israel headquarters on Bedford Avenue on May 15, 1941. They named the new congregation Khal Adas Yereim and invested great energy in its development. Like its antecedent, the Congregation prayed in

Nusach Nusach can refer to: * Nusach (Jewish custom) In Judaism, Nusach ( he, נוסח ''nusaħ'', modern pronunciation ''nusakh'' or ''núsakh''), plural nuschaot () or Modern Hebrew nusachim (), refers to the exact text of a prayer service; sometimes ...

Ashkenaz Ashkenaz ( he, ''ʾAškənāz'') in the Hebrew Bible is one of the descendants of Noah. Ashkenaz is the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. In rabbinic literature, the descendants of Ashkenaz were first associa ...

. In 1948 the Vienner Shul moved to a new building on Rodney and South 5th Street, and appointed Rabbi

Yonasan Steif Rabbi Yonasan Steif ( yi, יונתן שטייף‎; August 12, 1877 – August 25, 1958) was a senior dayan of Budapest, Hungary, before the Second World War, a man whom Rabbis Moshe Feinstein and Joel Teitelbaum referred to as the ''gadol ha ...

as its Rabbi. Due to the community's growth they moved in the mid 50s to a larger building on 27 Lee Avenue. Today the Williamsburg congregation bears little resemblance to its predecessor due to the mostly

Chassidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

nature of the community. There is a branch of the Vienner shul in Borough Park at 1350 50th St.

References

Literature

* Bob Martens, Herbert Peter: "The Destroyed Synagogues of Vienna - Virtual city walks". Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2011.

External links

Schiffschul
austriansynagogues.com

History of Jewish Vienna

Transit. The Iranians in Vienna. Photographs by Christine de Grancy
Exhibition at the

Jewish Museum Vienna The Jüdisches Museum Wien, trading as ''Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien GmbH'' or the Jewish Museum Vienna, is a museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria. The museum is present on two locations, in the Palais Eskeles in the Doroth ...

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