Vienna community celebrates Purim with 600 Ukrainian Jewish refugees

On the afternoon of Purim, the oval-shaped main sanctuary of Vienna’s Stadttempel was filled with the sounds of rattles and vuvuzelas as the community hosted a welcome party for the city’s Ukrainian Jewish refugees.

A large traffic light erected on the bimah in the synagogue told attendees when to drown out Haman’s name. Children in costumes ran about as Mordechai Rodgold, Israel’s ambassador to Austria, explained what his country was doing for Ukraine and Vienna’s chief rabbi Jaron Engelmayer read from the Book of Esther.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has now displaced more than three million Ukrainians. Five thousand Ukrainian Jews have thus far found safe haven in Israel, but thousands more have sought refuge inside the EU.

Among the 600 Jewish refugees in the care of Vienna’s Jewish community (IKG)  — a figure expected to rise to 1,000 by the end of the month — is “Maryia” (not her real name), who is pregnant and arrived having taken an arduous journey from her home in Dnipro with her husband and four children. She told the JC that though Vienna is a great place to be Jewish, she has family in Berlin and believes her husband may have better job prospects in Germany.