The Jews of Vienna and the First World War

The First World War marked the final chapter in the history of Habsburg Viennese Jewry. In this book, the first study of Viennese Jews in this period, David Rechter explores the community's crises of ideology and identity during the traumatic war years. The book is also a study of modern Jewish politics. Viennese and Austrian Jewish political culture was a unique amalgam, combining the nationalism and radicalism of eastern Europe with the liberalism of the west. During the war, Zionism emerged the victor. The Jewish experience resembled that of other minorities in central and eastern Europe in this period, where ideologies of nationalism and ethnic self-determination became the prevailing norm. Despite this political transformation, Jewish world-views whether liberal, nationalist, or Orthodox survived the war remarkably intact. In analysing how Viennese Jews made the difficult transition from the Habsburg empire to the Austrian Republic, David Rechter offers a case study of Jewish politics and society in the crucible of war and brings to light an unexamined episode of modern Jewish history.

The First World War marked the final chapter in the history of Habsburg Viennese Jewry. In this book, the first study of Viennese Jews in this period, David Rechter explores the community's crises of ideology and identity during the traumatic war years. The book is also a study of modern Jewish politics. Viennese and Austrian Jewish political culture was a unique amalgam, combining the nationalism and radicalism of eastern Europe with the liberalism of the west. During the war, Zionism emerged the victor. The Jewish experience resembled that of other minorities in central and eastern Europe in this period, where ideologies of nationalism and ethnic self-determination became the prevailing norm. Despite this political transformation, Jewish world-views whether liberal, nationalist, or Orthodox survived the war remarkably intact. In analysing how Viennese Jews made the difficult transition from the Habsburg empire to the Austrian Republic, David Rechter offers a case study of Jewish politics and society in the crucible of war and brings to light an unexamined episode of modern Jewish history.

'A pioneer work in this field ... an excellent book.'
- Albert Friedlander, European Judaism

‘Excellent.’
- Daniel Unowsky, Historical Journal

‘A very valuable contribution.’
- Maureen Healy, Journal of Modern History

‘The research Rechter has carried out in this work is thorough and top-notch. He has mined the archives and mastered the details of the Jewisd political scene in wartime Vienna. This is an invaluable guide to scholars in the field as well as graduate students who wish to understand the politics and the players involved . . . a piece of quality research . . . will serve as a valuable resource for scholars and students of Jewish history.’
- Ian Reifowitz, Shofar

‘Rechter analyses the effects of the wartime crisis on Jewish thinking with considerable skill, drawing on an impressive range of sources . . . He gives a particularly effective account of the disorientation and dislocation of Viennese Jews at the fall of the Empire and their efforts to forge a new collective vision of their place in stunted post-imperial Austria.’
- Bernard Wasserstein, Times Literary Supplement

David Rechter is Professor of Modern Jewish History at the University of Oxford and William Golding Senior Research Fellow, Brasenose College, Oxford. He is the author of The Jews of Vienna and the First World War (2001) and Becoming Habsburg: The Jews of Austrian Bukovina 1774–1918 (2013), both published by the Littman Library.