Austro-Hungarian Jews

This project is here to give us a greater insight into the lives of our ancestors from across the empire and to help us work together to find our common roots.

List of Austro-Hungarian Jews Wikipedia

Famous People

Sigmund Freud: Father of Psychoanalysis.

Theodor Herzl: Father of Zionism.

Stefan Zweig: Novelist, playwright, journalist, biographer.

Franz Kafka: Novelist.

Gustav Mahler: Composer.

Arnold Schoenberg: Composer.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosopher.

Hasidic Dynasties

Larger Dynasties

Belz

Bobov

Munkacs

Sanz Klausenberg

Satmar

Vizhnitz

Useful Links

FamilySearch

• Ancestry.com
• MyHeritage
• Hungarian Integrated Archives
• Gesher Galicia
• Genealogy Indexer
• Jewish Family Research in Slovakia
• Vienna Cemetery Database

History

"When I attempted to find a simple formula for the period in which I grew up, prior to the First World War I hope that I convey its fulness by calling it the Golden Age of Security. Everything in our almost thousand year-old Austrian monarchy seemed based on permanency, and the State itself was the chief guarantor of this stability.
The rights which it granted to its citizens were duly confirmed by parliament, the freely elected representative of the people) and every duty was exactly prescribed. Our currency, the Austrian crown circulated in bright gold pieces an assurance of its immuta­bility.
Everyone knew how much he possessed or what he was entitled to what was permitted and what forbidden. Everything had its norm its definite measure and weight. He who had a fortune could accurately compute his annual interest. An official or an officer for example, could confidently look up in the calendar the year when he would be advanced in rank, or when he would be pensioned.
Each family had its fixed budget, and knew how much could be spent for rent and food, for holidays and entertainment; and what is more, in­variably a small sum was carefully laid aside for sickness and the doctor's bills, for the unexpected. Whoever owned a house looked upon it as a secure domicile for his children and grandchildren; estates and businesses were handed down from generation to generation.
When the babe was still in its cradle, its first mite was put in its little bank, or deposited in the savings bank, as a "reserve” for the future. In this vast empire everything stood firmly and immovably in its appointed place, and at its head was the aged emperor; and were he to die, one knew (or believed) another would come to take his place, and nothing would change in the well-regulated order. No one thought of wars, of revolutions, or revolts. All that was radical, all violence, seemed impossible in an age of reason."

~ "The World of Yesterday" by Stefan Zweig