Two Palestinian terrorists killed two people and 21 were injured, some seriously. Contemporary witnesses are still struggling with the long-term consequences, as they described at a memorial service on Sunday. Juwal Grauss was eleven years old when he was shot by the terrorists. “I pretended to be dead.” He suffered for many years, but as painful as the wounds were, “the attack makes me a strong, self-confident, Zionist Jew in Austria”.
Oskar Deutsch, President of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (IKG), emphasized the importance of security (costs of four million euros annually) for Jewish life in Austria: “Ultimately, this high level of protection makes diverse and self-confident Jewish life as we know it possible.” Unfortunately, he has the feeling that Israel-related anti-Semitism is too often played down.
As a whole, society urgently needs to take a resolute stand against any form of anti-Semitism, said Chancellery Minister Karoline Edtstadler (VP). As a current example, she referred to corona deniers who appear with Jewish stars.
