Chabad Lubavitch of Austria
Chabad-Lubavitch in Austria: the Vienna network led by Rabbi Jacob Biderman, the Lauder Chabad Campus funded by Ronald S. Lauder, the Leviev-backed Bukharian centre and its public funding, and the 2007 dispute with the Vienna Jewish community
| Chabad Lubavitch of Austria
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  Logo of the Chabad House in Vienna |
| Type | Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch) |
| Founded | 1982 (Lauder Chabad school, as an afternoon school) |
| Headquarters | Vienna |
| Location | Rabbiner-Schneerson-Platz 1, 1020 Vienna (Agudas Chasidei Chabad Austria – Headquarters) |
| Area served | Austria |
| Services | Schools and kindergartens, synagogues, community centres, a business school, student and youth programmes |
| Key people | Jacob Biderman (head of Chabad Austria) |
| Website | https://www.chabad.at |
Chabad Lubavitch of Austria is the Chabad-Lubavitch network in Austria. Almost all of it is in Vienna, where its headquarters, Agudas Chasidei Chabad Austria, is on Rabbiner-Schneerson-Platz in the second district, next to the Lauder Chabad Campus school.[1] Its best-known institutions are the Lauder Chabad Campus, the Lauder Business School and the Beit HaLevi centre for Bukharian Jews, the first two underwritten by the American businessman Ronald S. Lauder and the last named after its donor Lev Leviev.[2][3] The head of Chabad in Austria is Rabbi Jacob Biderman: the Jewish Telegraphic Agency described him in 2007 as "chairman of the extensive Chabad organization in Austria", and Chabad's world headquarters described him in 2018 as "Vienna's head Chabad representative".[3][2]
Size
Chabad's world headquarters lists 19 Chabad institutions in Austria: 16 in Vienna, two in Salzburg and one in Zankwarn.[4][5] Its 2018 article on Vienna gave a different count, saying that "Eight Chabad centers in four of Vienna's districts, and 22 Chabad representatives serve the city's Jewish population", together with seven Chabad preschools headed by Chani Edelman.[2]
The Vienna institutions listed include the headquarters (Rabbis Zalman Eidelman and Jacob Biderman), the Lauder Chabad Campus, the Chabad House at Taborstraße 20a (Rabbi Avraham Biderman), the Community Center Beth Halevi at Rabbiner-Schneerson-Platz 2, the Heichal Menachem synagogue, Chabad of Döbling, Chabad on Campus at the Lauder Business School, a Chabad house for Israelis and a mikveh.[1]
History
Lauder Chabad school
According to Edla Biderman, director of Jewish studies, the school was founded "as an afternoon school in 1982 with 52 children". Chabad's world headquarters wrote in 2018 that "With the support of Mr. Ronald Lauder, the school has grown to become one of the city's largest Jewish educational systems", adding divisions as Jews moved to Vienna in the 1990s; the school is named after Ronald S. Lauder.[2]
In 1997 the building of a new school in the Augarten park was opposed locally. In June 1997 the Liberal Forum said that the housing committee of the Vienna city council had unanimously approved a building-right contract (Baurechtsvertrag) for the school, but that the head of the Leopoldstadt district, Weissmann, was still blocking the project, and that the Lauder Foundation might withdraw its pledge to fund the building if no decision was taken by the end of June.[6] In September 1997 the Liberal Forum welcomed the decision of the citizens' group "Rettet den Augarten" (Save the Augarten) to end its campaign against the plot in the Rauscherstraße.[7]
The Lauder Chabad Campus opened on 11 October 1999. The architecture news service BauNetz reported that Chancellor Viktor Klima called it "ein starkes Zeichen jüdischer Identität" ("a strong sign of Jewish identity"), that the project cost 80 million Schilling (about 11 million Deutsche Mark) and "was made possible by a foundation of the former US ambassador to Austria, Ronald S. Lauder", and that it was designed by the architect Adolf Krischanitz.[8] The sources differ on who owned the land. BauNetz wrote that the 5,000 m² plot "had been owned for years by the Jewish community" (the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien), while the Liberal Forum's 1997 statements described a building-right contract approved by the city council.[8][6]
Reported pupil numbers have grown over time: about 410 in 2007, according to Jacob Biderman; 465 pupils and 80 staff in 2018, according to Chabad's world headquarters; and 500, according to the school's own website.[3][2][9] The school says it offers a crèche, kindergarten, primary school, middle school, upper school and commercial school, with a dual secular and Jewish curriculum.[9]
Expansion
An association, the Verein zur Errichtung und Führung der Lauder Chabad Campus Erweiterung in Wien (association for building and running the Lauder Chabad Campus extension in Vienna), is registered at Rabbiner-Schneerson-Platz 1 with the stated purpose of building and running schools in Vienna; according to Creditreform data its current legal form dates from 8 August 2019.[10] The City of Vienna lists it as the client for the complete refurbishment of the Lauder Chabad Schule at Nordwestbahnstraße 6 in the 20th district, designed by F+P Architekten, among the city's building projects of 2024.[11]
Lauder Business School
Chabad's world headquarters describes the Lauder Business School as "Underwritten by Mr. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, and established by Rabbi Biderman" (that is, Jacob Biderman), with about 360 students, 170 of them living on campus. Chabad on Campus, led by Rabbi Baruch Sabach, runs Jewish activities there.[2][1]
Bukharian Jews and the Beit HaLevi centre
On 18 February 2007 Chabad opened a $6.05 million centre, "The House of the Future", opposite the Lauder Chabad School, aimed mainly at Bukharian Jews from Central Asia. Jacob Biderman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that "The main purpose of the center is to provide help with integration".[3] The JTA reported that Chabad "has been particularly successful at attracting financing for its projects in Vienna that cater to Jews from the former Soviet Union", that the centre "received city and state funding", and that its Hebrew inscription, Beit haLevy Chabad, honoured Lev Leviev, a Bukharian billionaire from Uzbekistan living in Israel, whom it described as "a major funder of Chabad in Austria and the former Soviet Union". Leviev attended the opening along with Berel Lazar, one of Russia's chief rabbis, and city and state officials.[3]
The president of the Vienna Jewish community, Ariel Muzicant, said at the opening that the centre would duplicate existing community programmes, take support away from an existing Sephardi centre funded by the community, and draw government money away from the community. He said: "It's the same story over and over with Chabad. They sell it to the Austrian government officials as an open center for integration to get funding, but it's all about Chabad." The JTA reported that Biderman "strongly denied the accusations", saying that he had worked with all parts of the Jewish community and that "The people on our board are also on the board of the Sephardi center, so there is no competition". Shlomo Ustoniazov, a Bukharian board member, called the suggestion "absurd".[3] According to the JTA, the Sephardi centre, opened in 1989, "also was a Chabad-led effort but under the auspices of the Jewish Community of Vienna"; at the time the Bukharians had split into three congregations, one Chabad-oriented, and were represented by two bodies, the Bukharian World Congress, "with links to Chabad", and the non-Chabad Association of Bukharian Jews in Austria.[3] Austria's then chief rabbi, Paul Chaim Eisenberg, told the JTA that the Vienna community had at first not understood the Bukharians' need for separate traditions, "but that is all in the past".[3]
In 2018 Chabad's world headquarters described Beit HaLevi, on Rabbiner-Schneerson-Platz, as providing "1,200 of Vienna's Bukharan Jews with a rich community life".[2] It also wrote that the street had been "renamed Rabbiner Schneerson Platz", after Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe.[2]
Reception
In the 2018 Chabad article, the political consultant Daniel Kapp credited "the Chabad emissaries under the leadership of Rabbi Biderman" (Jacob Biderman) with having "contributed greatly to the Jewish renaissance we now enjoy in Austria".[2] Daniel Kapp, whom Lubavitch.com described as a political consultant, appears to be the Vienna PR consultant of that name: a former ÖVP government press spokesman (for Wilhelm Molterer and Josef Pröll, 2000–2011) and managing partner of Kapp Hebein Partner GmbH, who is listed in the leadership of the European Jewish Association.[12][13][14] In 2007 Ariel Muzicant, president of the Vienna Jewish community, criticised Chabad's methods of seeking public funding, which Biderman denied (see above).[3]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Austria
- Chabad Lubavitch of Germany
- Chabad Lubavitch of Switzerland
- Ronald S. Lauder
- Lev Leviev
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Vienna – Centers", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Baila Olidort, "Vienna's Jewish Renaissance", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), 18 January 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 "Chabad opens Vienna center", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 19 February 2007.
- ↑ "Europe – Centers", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Austria – Centers", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Liberales Forum, Landtagsklub Wien, "Lauder-Schule am Augarten: Wiener Liberale begrüßen einstimmige Annahme des Baurechtsvertrages", APA-OTS, 12 June 1997.
- ↑ Liberales Forum, Landtagsklub Wien, "Liberale-Hack: „Lauder Chabad-Schule wird gebaut!“", APA-OTS, 17 September 1997.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Krischanitz baut Zeichen jüdischer Identität: Eröffnung des „Lauder Chabad Campus“ in Wien", BauNetz, 13 October 1999.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Über Uns", Lauder Chabad Campus, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Verein zur Errichtung und Führung der Lauder Chabad Campus Erweiterung in Wien", FirmenABC (Creditreform data), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Stadt Wien, "gebaut 2024 – Projekte", wien.gv.at, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Job für Pröll-Sprecher Daniel Kapp", Die Presse, 14 July 2011.
- ↑ "Kapp Hebein Partner GmbH, FN 391953b", Austrian company register (Firmenbuch), published via evi.gv.at, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Mr. Daniel Kapp", European Jewish Association, accessed 25 October 2026.