The Star on the Ceiling. Re-opening of Stadttempel in Vienna

Part II of the Celebration of the Spirit essay  

Part I can be read here.

Art as a memory print 

In September this year, on Rosh HaShanah, 200 years after Stadttempel was built, and over a century after its unlikely surviving the Kristallnacht and the total destruction of WWII, the Jewish community of Vienna, 12,000- strong, celebrated the important anniversary of its historical synagogue in the best possible way. 

They have restored it completely. The story of this restoration, led by a well-known architect and member of the community Natalie Neurbauer, her architectural KENH Architekten bureau and the large team of sub-contractors in close cooperation with the Austrian Federal Authority for Federal Monuments Office is worthy of its own narrative. 

The restoration has been remarkable in its quality, attitude, human effort and outcome.  

Michael and I immediately decided to join the celebration, by donating two of our original artworks, both with their own stories and meaningful dedications, to the Jewish community of Vienna in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the restored Stadttempel. We dedicated our works in honor of the former members of the Vienna Jewish community which were our close friends and family members. 

Michael’s work Simon’s Rose ( 2023) looks simple, but it has quite a story behind it.

For many years since the early 1990s we both were close friends and junior colleagues with Simon Wiesenthal. We visited Simon  in Vienna often, and worked together on films, books and other projects. 

Our very first meeting stays in our memory as it happened just yesterday. It had to do with a rose. The bronze rose in a silver vase. 

On Simon’s desk, there always stood a nice rose in a small elegant vase. It was a fixture there, for Simon’s life. He never told anyone why it was there, but at some point he told Michael and me that it is to quietly symbolize his mom, whose name was Rose. Simon’s mother and the rest of his family were murdered in Auschwitz. 

That would be special enough, but when I entered Wiesenthal’s study for the very first time back in early 1990s, I was uncharacteristically nervous before our first meeting. As soon as I entered the room, instead of “Hello Mr Wiesenthal”, I exclaimed “Oh, but I have exactly the same rose in exactly the same vase in my study too! How come?” Simon was laughing as a baby, and we became instant friends that we stayed with all the years until his passing in 2005. 

That same rose in the same vase is still in my study. I have no explanation for this quite particular coincidence. But it warms my heart every time I am looking at it, always thinking of Simon and his mom Rose. 

In connection with the Simon Wiesenthal Prize ceremony at Austrian Parliament some years ago, Michael made a simple and charming original drawing of the rose and vase which is called Simon Wiesenthal Rose. 

We have now  donated the work to the Jewish Community of Vienna in memory and honor of Simon Wiesenthal and his family. Simon and his beloved wife Cyla were the members of the community all the years of their life in Vienna, until the end of it in 2003 and 2005. We are still in cordial friendship with their only daughter Paulinka and her family living in Israel. 

The other work, Kol Nidre ( 2020-2026) is my work that emphasizes the drama and resilience of the Viennese Jewish community and its only surviving temple. 

It is about striving and ability not to merely survive although under certain circumstances it is an exploit on its own, but to keep one’s life and mission with dignity and in a full measure. Exactly as it has been done by the Jewish community of Vienna and which Stadttempel, its restoration and commemoration symbolizes, to me. 

I dedicated the donation of the work in memory and honor of the Rose-Mahler musical dynasty and the family to whom I am related. Although they decided to convert to be able to build up their musical careers, they all were Jewish people who lived and worked in Vienna for decades, contributing to Austrian and world culture and music in an extraordinary way, and ultimately, paying the highest price for it. Ironically, the records of all of them converting to Christianity did save none of them from the annihilation, as under the Nuremberg laws these records were promptly nullified. Researching the saga of that illustrious family for many years, I have previously published some part of my findings and a small part of our family story. 

I keep going after their traces in various places in Austria. In Vienna, coming to the Wall of Names , and next to the Arnold Rose and his family’s former house at Pyrkergasse where from they were kicked unceremoniously with his wife Justine, the beloved sister of Gustav Mahler, following the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra  firing their most famous concertmaster who led the orchestra for 57 years, and banning him from any performances, as the direct consequence of Nazi policies after the Anschluss. Justine’s life ended there and because of that catastrophe in their lives. She died of a heart-attack in August  1938, being completely devastated.  

In Salzburg, standing next to the memory stones in their names in front of the Philharmonic Hall there. I always have complex reflections in all those places. From one side, it is so bottomlessly sad and still painful. From another, I am grateful for the memory which although being materialized quite late, is now ongoing and living. 

Commemoration of decency and decency of commemoration. Vienna Jewry at its best 

Speaking with many members of the Viennese Jewish community and its leadership, discussing the way of the restoration of Stadttempel, I was impressed the most by human stories, personal attitude, involvement and care. It shows, without parading it, not only the essence of the important commemoration, but the principle attitude of the people who were all participating in it and made it possible. 

Benjamin Nägele, Secretary General of Jewish Communities of Austria, underlined the fact that ‘the restoration has been funded jointly, in equal parts, by three parties: the state, the city of Vienna and the Jewish community’. Benjamin has emphasized that ‘such well-spirited cooperation between all the parties has definitely assured the development of quite demanding , in many respects, process of restoration, and we as the Council of Jewish communities of Austria value this positive attitude and successful cooperation highly’. 

Indeed, this tells not only about the respectful approach of the Austrian state and Viennese city council authorities towards the qualified maintenance of the rich Jewish heritage of Vienna and Austria, but also about the normal attitude which has been badly missing nowadays in too many European and other countries. 

It was a real pleasure to see the attendance of the entire Austrian leadership, including the country’s President and its Chancellor, along with many members of the Austrian parliament and the City Council of Vienna at the restored Stadttempel celebration, sharing this special commemoration with the entire Jewish community of Vienna as it should be in any civilized country. But nowadays such attitudes and practices have become an exception, alarmingly. 

Isabella Martens, the head of the fund-raising department of the Jewish communities of Austria and also the deputy of the Jewish community President Oskar Deutsch in a well-known TMICHA charity for people in need, has mentioned several heart-warming personal takes in the Stadttempel restoration process. 

Among them , one was about an America-based donor who has provided extremely generously, matching every single donation to the restoration for a long time. “Without him, we simply would not be able to do it”, – said Isabella. 

Another story Isabel shared with me was about an elderly man, a long-standing member of the community who was reaching his 103d birthday last year. ‘ Back in March, on a Friday afternoon, an email popped in, – tells Isabella. – Normally, I am unable to respond to emails so close to Shabbat, but this time, my gut has punched me to respond. In the email, that elderly member who was approaching his 103d birthday, has expressed his wish to support the synagogue’s restoration and to have his name in one of the stars that adore our ceiling in the synagogue. In that email, the man asked specifically that his wish would be fulfilled on the same day, March 7th. Of course, we did it, and I responded to him immediately that his star was dedicated. Next evening, after the end of Shabbat, I was informed that the man passed away, on his 103d birthday. I cried for a very long time that evening. But now I am seeing his star on our ceiling and am so glad that we managed to do it in time and that he knew about it”. 

The star on the ceiling 

We were so glad to see many of our Viennese Jewish friends celebrating that truly special 200th anniversary of the remarkable Stadttempel being restored so beautifully. We felt their joy, which has been a long-lasting sensation even for us, not to speak about themselves. Additionally to a genuine and expected human joy, we also saw a lot of dignity in the way the special celebration of the spirit in Vienna has been conducted among the community members and everyone who joined them in this milestone celebration. 

This dignity has become a special factor and special mark for me in the connection with lovingly restoring a historical, only surviving synagogue in Vienna and celebrating the 200-year old unique institution today, amidst the escalating atmosphere of intimidation that Jewish people are feeling all over the world in the new fashion of a primitive hatred recurring with its utterly stupid insatiability in a certain frequency, no lessons learned. 

So very often now, I am returning in my thoughts to the story of the star on the Stadttempel ceiling dedicated the last March to the Jewish Viennese boy, who was 15 at the time of the Kristallnacht, and who was 23 at the end of the totally devastating for Jews World War II, who lived such a long life in Vienna and belonged to that deeply wounded and almost completely destroyed community of talented, well-educated, very able and hard-working people, who did restore itself and their so unique synagogue, the only one survived. 

I am looking at those beautiful fine stars on that so gentle ceiling of Stadttemple, an elegant reference to the serenity of  skies filled with many stars, all golden but none pompous, in the good taste of fine European Jewish tradition. There are many stars on that ceiling, and many of them are dedicated to the members of this community and their families. They all are there. Everybody involved in this deeply meaningful restoration process of Stadttempel knows it . 

It does keep the tradition of a dignified memory and Jewish life in Vienna in the most beautiful way. The beauty side of it is highly important not only because it brings pleasure to one’s eyes and seeds the good taste, but also because it contributes to harmony and speaks to most of us effortlessly, in the nobility of spirit. 

Returning to its beauty, Stadttempel in Vienna spreads the light of dignified remembrance and elegance in maintaining the Jewish heritage in and beyond the heart of Europe. It matters to European Jewry as a whole, continuing the noble tradition and laying an elevated level of living a Jewish life today, which is utterly important for us all. 

And I just love that star in the Stadttempel ceiling. It speaks to me too. 

Part I can be read here.

September – November 2026

Vienna