At the dawn of the 20th century, the Austrian capital was a vibrant center of Jewish cultural life: it was the city of Theodor Herzl, Sigmund Freud, the novelist Joseph Roth, Gustav Mahler, and countless others, who lived alongside numerous Galician Hasidim under the rule of a vocally anti-Semitic mayor. Joshua Marks describes the city’s remaining Jewish landmarks, and the early history of its Jewish community:

The story of Jewish life in Vienna traces its origins to the Middle Ages, specifically in the vicinity of Judenplatz (“Jewish square” in German). This location also marks the site of the first of three significant tragedies that befell the city’s Jewish community. The earliest official records of Jews in Austria date back to the year 904. However, it was not until 1194 that a Jew was specifically mentioned in Vienna, with a man named Schlom (Shalom) being recognized as a mint master under Duke Leopold V.

Schlom’s fate mirrored that of countless Jews across Europe and Jerusalem during the Crusades. As European Christians advanced toward the Holy Land, they perpetrated violence against Jews, including the massacre of Schlom and fifteen members of his household in Vienna in 1196.

The first notable rabbi of Vienna was Isaac ben Moshe, known as the Or Zaru’a, Hebrew for “Sown Light,” after his most renowned scholarly work, still regarded as a vital component of rabbinical literature.

In October, a young Mauritanian national murdered an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago. This alone should be sufficient sign of the rising dangers of anti-Semitism. Nathan Diament explains how the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) can, if passed, make American Jews safer:

We were off to a promising start when the AAA sailed through the House of Representatives in the spring by a generous vote of 320 to 91, and 30 senators from both sides of the aisle jumped to sponsor the Senate version. Then the bill ground to a halt.

Fearful of antagonizing their left-wing activist base and putting vulnerable senators on the record, especially right before the November election, Democrats delayed bringing the AAA to the Senate floor for a vote. Now, the election is over, but the political games continue.

You can’t combat anti-Semitism if you can’t—or won’t—define it. Modern anti-Semites hide their hate behind virulent anti-Zionism. . . . The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act targets this loophole by codifying that the Department of Education must use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism in its application of Title VI.