Thursday, November 13th, Vienna

Thursday morning we went to the Jewish Museum in Judenplatz. The museum includes underground ruins of a synagogue from the 1420s, which was discovered in the 1990s.

After the museum my mother and I went to the City-Temple, which is the only synagogue that survived the Holocaust. The synagogue is very beautiful, neo-classical architecture, and was spared for a few reasons, mostly because it was built within another building. I took a few photos inside but none of them turned out too well.

We had to be at the school at four again, for a school wide assembly. The assembly was really big - all the students of the school, all the guests, and community members. Most of it was in German, and I wish I understood it. The President of Austria was there, and gave a speech, as well as the Head Master of the school, one of the returning students, and several others. It was all very touching and moving, and really amazing to be part of it.

The choir and orchestra played two songs - one during the assembly, Dona Dona, and one later as they revealed the plaque with all the names of the Jewish students. My father got some good photos during this, and I will post them later.

I took some videos of these two songs, which was pretty incredible, so if anyone wants to see them let me know and I will send them along. The quality is not the best, but they still make me happy and remind me of the event.