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Jewish Vienna Private Tour: Exploring History, Culture, and Revival in 3 Hours
4.5
8 Ratings
Vienna
Discover the rich history and cultural heritage of Vienna's Jewish community on this 3-hour private tour. Explore the impact of influential figures, visit historic synagogues, and learn about the revival of Vienna's Jewish community today.
Duration:
3 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
learn more
Highlights
- Stadttempel Synagogue - Outside the beautiful doors of the Jewish City Temple, we consider the how the Viennese Jewish Community had to keep their synagogues barely visible from the street despite their influential role in their city’s development over centuries. Few European cities have been so closely intertwined with Jewish history as Vienna. Outside this important temple, we learn of Jewish life and increasing settlement in Vienna from the Middle Ages, despite dramatic expulsions.
We don’t visit the interior but we recommend that you contact the synagogue to arrange a tour with their own guides, open April to October, Monday to Thursday. If you take the 11:30 AM Monday synagogue tour and then enjoy your lunch, you are in the perfect place to begin our 2:00 PM tour of Jewish Vienna. If you take the 2:00 PM synagogue tour on Tuesday and Thursdays, it will fit well after our 9:30 AM Tuesday and Thursday tour with a lunch break.
- Theater Nestroyhof Hamakom - We consider the influence of Vienna’s modern Jewish community on every aspect of the city’s cultural life from outside the Nestroyhof Theater with its stunning Art Nouveau exterior, once home to Yiddish-speaking ensembles.
- Leopoldstadt - Winding through Vienna’s second district, to visit the memorial site of the destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple. Today, it is symbolized by four imposing white columns reaching up into the sky.
- Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial - Learn of the victims and survivors of Nazi genocide and the phenomenon of antisemitism in Europe while visiting the destroyed synagogues of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic congregations and the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial.
What's Included
- 3-hour guided stroll through Vienna’s Jewish heritage sites
- Explore with a historian guide
What's Not Included
- Metro fare. If you don’t have a visitor pass, our guide helps you to purchase at the first station.
Additional Information
The Jewish community in Vienna, dating back to the medieval period, was among the largest in Europe. On this 3-hour tour focused on Jewish Vienna, we delve into the turbulent history of Vienna’s Jewish residents, encompassing expulsion, mass murder, and rejuvenation. A knowledgeable historian will guide you in uncovering the impactful contributions of previous intellectual and cultural figures and the delicate revival of Vienna’s Jewish community occurring presently.
Our tour initiates at the Jewish City Temple, then meanders through the second district to the ruined Leopoldstädter Temple. At the Nestroyhof Theater, bedecked with its impressive Art Nouveau facade and at one point the residence of Yiddish-speaking troupes, we ponder upon prominent figures in Vienna’s intellectual, political, and economic realms hailing from the Jewish community, such as Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Karl Krauss, Franz Werfel, and Gustav Mahler. As we learn about the victims and survivors of the Nazi mass murder, our journey takes us to demolished Ashkenazi and Sephardic synagogues and the Judenplatz Holocaust memorial.
- Your tour guides are professors, doctoral students, historians, journalists, art critics, and published authors
Location
Stadttempel Synagogue
Seitenstettengasse 4
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.5
(8 Ratings)
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1 star
Sherwin_m
Sep 27, 2023
Outstanding experience - Highly recommend it - Our guide was well prepared complete with photos and videos about the historical significance of the sites we viewed. Her perspectives and knowledge were invaluable to bring the history to life.
We highly recommend her.
Review provided by Viator
Kenab4187jg
Apr 10, 2023
Thorough, Engaging and Informative Tour of Jewish Vienna - My wife and I took our walking tour of Jewish Vienna with Annelie together with our children, ages 21 and 26. Annelie was a wonderful and knowledgeable guide, and she kept us all engaged the entire time. She used a microphone that fed into the ear-phones she provided us, which ensured that we were able to hear and understand her despite any traffic or other noise around us. We covered a lot of ground, both historically and geographically, taking public transportation out of the Inner City into the neighboring Second District. As an adjunct to her walking tour, she also brought visual aids, a book that included maps, paintings, woodcuts and photographs of the people, places and events that shaped Jewish Viennese history from medieval times through the Shoah to the present, as well as I-Pad three-dimensional visuals of old Vienna streets and houses. All in all, this tour is the one against which we will compare all other tours in the future. A thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Susan_s
Oct 25, 2022
Jewish Vienna , Early 13 th century history, Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, and now. - Annalie certainly knew her Vienna Jewish history. She gave us a quick overview at the hotel and then we proceeded to the underground train, me on my scooter and my husband on foot. We visited an old Orthadox schul guarded by police, but did not enter. We learned history of early Jewish settlers in Vienna. I bounced along the cobblestone streets and hills finding out about these early settlers and their accomplishments and their wives who entertained dukes and other nobles. We also saw a moving WW2 monument in the shape of a b library with books shelves backwards to remember those who would have no life to recall and write about. We were led to a small shop for a warm drink and ended in a grand salon for a snack worthy of our learning that day.
Review provided by Viator
Evan
Jul 30, 2022
Exceeded my very high expectations - The tour with Annelie exceeded all of our expectations. She met my family and me at our hotel and gave us earpieces so that we could all hear her clearly throughout. Annelie was incredibly knowledgeable, and she tailored the tour and her remarks to keep everyone fully engaged. She had a useful binder with photos and drawings and an iPad with short vignettes to bring more of the history to life.
She also honored the fact that this was a special trip for us because I wanted to see the neighborhood where my grandparents lived, which was coincidentally and conveniently near Annelie’s home. Her familiarity with the neighborhood (which would be part of the regular tour since it’s the 2nd district) made the tour even more personal. She then recommended and dropped us off at a truly local Italian restaurant (what my two teenage sons requested!) after introducing us to the staff at the restaurant.
I had really high hopes and expectations for the tour because it was such an important, personal occasion and, again, they were all exceeded. Annelie made the visit even more memorable. I cannot recommend the tour more highly.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Gse6484mq
Jul 5, 2022
Vienna private walking tour - Annelie was a terrific guide with lots of interesting stories and clearly knows Vienna and Austrian history very well. My fiancee and I had a great time with her and would highly recommend Annelie to anyone visiting Vienna
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Moizc313
Jun 4, 2022
Excellent - We were impressed of her great knowledge on the subject.
It was a great opportunity of being able to refresh and enlarge our knowledge on the subject. Thanks a lot
Review provided by Tripadvisor
R9776dddavidw
Oct 19, 2022
Lots of info excellent guide - My guide was very well prepared in all aspects of history. The reason im giving her 4 stars and not five is because it lacked sentiment there was more facts than storytelling and it really didn’t move me in the sad parts of history.
But the guide was very well informes and made a big effort to be thorough.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Roger_l
Oct 5, 2023
We did not think the tour... - We did not think the tour guide had either a deep feeling or knowledge ior Jewish culture in Vienna—the topic of our tour. We learned much more by ourselves in an hour on the fourth floor of the Leopold museum. The guide was well meaning and earnest (and amiable) but we didn’t think he was qualified to give that particular tour.
Review provided by Viator
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