Judenburg (Part 8: Final)

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Palestinian terror

During the last 24 hours, there have been more than 30 Palestinian terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security forces.

4 Israelis were wounded badly enough to be hospitalized: two Border Guards were run over at the Al-Zaim checkpoint (the terrorist escaped); a pedestrian was wounded by “rocks” in the A-Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem; a motorist was wounded by shattered glass on Road 443.

Terrorists attacked motorists with “rocks” at such places as Abanim, Zeita, Hizma, on Road 60 near Turmus’ayya, Karmi Tzur, Beitin, and the Halhul Bridge.

Terrorists rioted, attacking Israeli security forces with “rocks” and Molotov firebombs at Silwan, Shuafat, A-Ram, just outside Ariel, Bethany, Hevron, Azzun, Jadida, and Agza.

Terrorists attacked the Jerusalem Light Rail numerous times: at Beit Hanina last night, at Shuafat in the afternoon,

The Unesco Decision

So Jerusalem is now Al-Quds, the Temple Mount is now Haram esh-Sharif, and the Western Wall is now a part of the Al-Aksa Mosque known as the Buraq Wall.

So what?

Did anyone really think that the countries in UNESCO would vote otherwise?

Now there is only one more step for UNESCO to take and that is simply to declare that Israel is Palestine.

And do you know what? If UNESCO or its parent the United Nations decided to vote on “Israel is Palestine” this afternoon, the result would be the same as yesterday.

The name of “Israel” would be wiped off the map.

For all of the breast-beating going on in Jerusalem yesterday after the foregone UNESCO decision was announced, there was one “small” aspect of the situation that was overlooked.

And that is simply that for the entire period of Benjamin Netanyahu’s “reign” as prime minister, he and his government(s) have done nothing except solidify Arab claims to the Temple Mount.

What would any rational person say about the fact that the Netanyahu government has actively pursued a policy that denies Jews the right to worship on the Mount while busing in Muslims from Gaza to do so?

What would any rational person say about the fact that the Netanyahu government has actively pursued a policy that denies Jews the right to worship on the Mount and permits more than 1,000,000 Muslims to do so every Ramadan?

What would any rational person say about the fact that the Netanyahu government has actively pursued a policy that denies Israel sovereignty over the Temple Mount while willy-nilly turning over its administration to the Jordanian Islamic Wakf?

What is the old saying? Actions speak louder than words.

Netanyahu can beat his breast all day and cry to the media at the height of his lungs about how terrible the UNESCO decision was, but the fact is that for the last seven years his government has been at the forefront of establishing Arab sovereignty over the Temple Mount–and by extension over eastern Jerusalem.

TODAY’S BLOG

JUDENBURG (Part 8)

We have now been through Lisbon, Barcelona, Chambery, San Marino, Venice, Krakow, Auschwitz and Birkenau. Everywhere we look, we see Jews murdered and Jewish communities wiped out.

When your humble servant began his tour of Europe last month, it was not his intention to focus on these communities.

But then Judenburg came along.

What is Judenburg you may ask? Is it a symbol of what has happened to Jews in Europe? Or is it an actual place?

One day on our trip we were on a train traveling from Villach, Austria to Vienna. As we came down out of the mountains, I happened to glance out of the window as the train rolled to a stop, and saw this sign announcing the town we were in at the train platform:

Naturally, I immediately wondered if it were possible that the town had a Jewish community?

The stop was only for a minute or so, but I managed to squeeze off another couple of photos as we pulled away:

And one last one:

So, after we left the town, I googled Judenburg to find out about why it was named “Burg of the Jews.”

And this came up in Wikipedia:

Judenburg itself was first mentioned in a 1074 staple right deed as mercatum Judinburch, a market town within the estates of Eppenstein Castle, the ancestral seat of the Bavarian Eppensteiner noble family, who ruled as Styrian margraves in the 11th century. The name literally means “Jews’ Borough”, referring to the town’s origin as a trading outpost on the route from the Mur Valley across the Odbach Saddle mountain pass to Carinthia in which Jews played an important role . . .

This is interesting I thought; I wondered if there were still any Jews in the town? I read on:

Upon the extinction of the Eppensteiner dynasty in 1122, the estates passed to the Styrian Otakars and in 1192 to the House of Babenberg, Dukes of Austria since 1156. Judenburg received town privileges in 1224 and the right to collect tolls in 1277. The town grew to an important commercial centre for iron ore mined at nearby Eisenerz, but also for valeriana celtica used in perfumes during the 13th and 14th century. Judenburg was even granted a valeriana trade monopoly by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III in 1460.

Well all of this is very interesting I thought, but what about the Jews?

Then came the almost throw-away line in Wikipedia:

After several pogroms, all Jews were expelled from the Duchy of Styria by order of Emperor Maximilian I in 1496.

Pogroms? My curiosity led me to ask why pograms would have occurred in Judenburg in the late 1400s (not that anyone needed a reason). The great plague years with their bizarre accusations against Jews had happened more than a hundred years before.

I looked further and found in the Jewish Encyclopedia that persecution of Jews began in 1312 when a number were burned at the stake. And why? According to the Encyclopedia:

. . . it was reported at Judenburg that the Jews had formed the design of murdering all the Christians in the night of Christmas. It was said that a Jewish girl who was in love with a Christian had betrayed the plan to him, urging him to save himself by flight. The Christian in turn warned his fellows, and the people determined to exterminate the Jews. Many of them fled, but a great number were killed.

But a few Jews remained in the town and their population grew. 

What happened in 1496?

Again from the Encyclopedia:

In 1496 the Diet of Styria obtained an order from Emperor Maximilian expelling the Jews from Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, because they had been “guilty of desecrating the holy sacrament of the altar and murdering Christian children.”

And guess what? In what church did the supposed desecration take place with the accompanying accusation of murdering Christian children? What was the point of origin of the massacre of Jews?

Look back at the church in the photo above. It is the Magdalenakirche (Church)–built in the 1300s and still standing today.

By the way, most of the Jews were not lucky enough to be expelled. From the Encyclopedia:

Legend reports that on the occasion of the massacre of the Jews the last one caught was strangled with a chain at the city gate still called “Judenthürl.”

It turns out that long after the Jews were gone, they reappeared. One final detail about Judenburg from the Encyclopedia:

Judenburg became part of the Third Reich after the Austrian Anschluss with Germany in 1938. During the Second World War, a subcamp of Mathausen concentration camp was located nearby . . .

Thus, dear readers, did the idea for this series begin. Judenburg, a city named for the Jews that came there and established it: Jews that eventually came under the control of Christians, Jews that were subsequently slaughtered and expelled, Jews virtually all record of whom was erased, and Jews who were brought back by the Nazis to work themselves to death in the sub-Mathausen death camp.

It is the story of Europe.

But the story of Judenburg has one final twist.

After the slaughter of Jews in medieval times, and the Nazi-Austrian establishment of the sub-camp of Mathausen, guess what remains the coat of arms of the city of Judenburg today?

That’s right a Jew:

And what is more, this coat of arms hangs on a house in the middle of the city, apparently where the synagogue stood in 1496–the last vestige of a once thriving community.