ABSTRACT
Klaus Hodl misunderstands the Jews of Vienna. The Jews, he insists, should not be considered a "minority group" influenced by or acculturating into the "majority group" in Vienna. The Jewish Museum, established in 1893/94 to respond to anti-Semitism by presenting the Jews and Judaism in a positive light, used cultural symbols that Jews and non-Jews shared and emphasized the Jewish place within the larger historical narrative. Wiener Juden—judische Wiener does well to remind that Jews and non-Jews interacted and together formed Viennese society. Despite anti-Semitism, Jews shared a common Viennese culture, or at least middle-class Jews shared a middle-class Viennese culture. The scientific explanation of Jewish rituals, so fashionable at the fin-desiecle, showed the extent to which Jews participated in contemporary discourse. Moreover, anti-Semitism and the success of Karl Lueger's Christian Social Party did not preclude Jewish/non-Jewish social interaction.
