The former synagogue in the town of Kobersdorf, in Austria’s Burgenland region, reopens this week after full-scale restoration over the past three years. It will be used as an educational, scholarly, and cultural centre programming exhibitions, concerts, symposia and other events focusing on Jewish culture and history.
The synagogue was inaugurated in April 1860 and survives as the only free-standing synagogue building in the Burgenland. Devastated by the Nazis, it was restituted to the Vienna Jewish community after the war, but remained unused. In 1994 it was purchased by an NGO that had hoped to restore it as a cultural venue, but was not successful.
The Burgenland region purchased the building in 2019.
“The building should be a visible sign that the state of Burgenland is aware of its Jewish roots, its Jewish traditions and its responsibility for the Jewish victims of the Nazi terror,” the region says on its web site..
“During the renovation, we made sure to preserve as much original substance as possible in order to save the synagogue’s historical significance; it reflects our Jewish heritage and our Jewish roots,” Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil said in a Facebook post
earlier this month after escorting Israel’s ambassador to Austria on a tour of the restored building.
According to local media, the region invested €3.5 million in the project, in cooperation with the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments and the Jewish community in Vienna.
The restoration work included:
- Restoration of the facade and walls, including drainage of the water-soaked masonry walls.
- Repair, rebuilding, or replacement of the 16 windows
- Renovation of doors and portals
- Restoration of the grounds and the brick-and-fencing enclosure surrounding the site
- Restoration of the interior walls, including painted decoration
- Treating the roof truss and women’s gallery area for woodworm (otherwise most of the wooden part of the roof and gallery are in fairly good condition)
Burgenland stretches along the border with Hungary and was long contested by the two powers. Jewish settlement here was extensive, dating back to the Middle Ages and especially encouraged in the latter part of the 17th century.
Kobersdorf was one of the Jewish settlements in the area that were noted as the “Seven Holy Communities” (Hebrew: Sheva Kehilot Kedoshot) and which were under the protection of the Esterhazy family. The others were Deutschkrertz, Eisenstadt, Kittsee, Frauenkirchen, Lackenbach, and Mattersburg.
Eisenstadt was the main town, and today it is the site of the Austrian Jewish Museum (whose complex incorporates a private synagogue, still consecrated for religious use), as well as the former Jewish ghetto area and two historic Jewish cemeteries. One other synagogue building in Burgenland survives — in Schlaining, where it was long used as the library of the Center for Peace and Conflict Research.
There are also remnants of medieval synagogues at Hainburg and Korneuburg, and at least 14 Jewish burial sites and a few memorial plaques visible in this region. After the Anschluss in 1938, the Burgenland Jews were the first in Austria to be expelled from their homes and deported.
Read the Austrian Jewish Museum blog about the synagogue its history
Read our October 2020 article about the synagogue and restoration
Read our June 2019 article about the synagogue
2 comments on “Austria Update: The 19th century Kobersdorf synagogue reopens as a cultural and education site after full-scale restoration”
Great news about the Kobersdorf synagogue- its return is special news for the Jewish Kaufman families of surnames Daniel and Holzer- many of whom were born and married in Kobertsdorf in the 19th century. May all their memories be a blessing. Baruch Hashem
My family are Holzers from kobersdorf. My great grandfather Heinrich born 1878 and his father Sigmund. I would love to know how to learn more of this family.