A tour through the Old Jewish section of Vienna’s Central Cemetery is a walk through Vienna’s Jewish past. Acquired by the Jewish Community in 1877, the so-called Old Jewish Section at Gate 1 became the final resting place of about 80,000 Viennese Jews until 1916. We show the elaborate graves of celebrated Jewish personages, rabbis, freedom fighters, industrialists and patrons of the arts. Many of their inscriptions contain their life stories and achievements. Thousands of graves, however, are marked only with modest headstones which are often overgrown with ivy, broken, tilted or toppled over, creating an impression of deliberate neglect in the eyes of someone not familiar with Jewish Law. According to it, a grave is a “House of Life” whose sanctity is eternal. Belonging to the deceased, it may never be removed or used for repeated interments as in non-Jewish traditions. In collaboration with the City of Vienna, the small present-day Jewish community is trying to preserve this historic section cutting trees, keeping the growth of weeds at bay, and even renewing fading inscriptions.
