Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna

The Jewish Museum Vienna (company: Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna GmbH, abbreviated JMW ) is an Austrian museum of Jewish history, culture, and religion.The museum is divided into two buildings: the Palais Eskeles on Dorotheergasse and the Misrachi-Haus on Judenplatz.The exhibitions and events program focuses on the past and present of Jewish culture in Austria.

A series of glass holograms depicting three-dimensional views of daily Jewish life in ancient Vienna was damaged during the reconstruction work on Dorotheergasse.A museum staffer took photos of the shattered holograms and shared them to curators who blog and local media.This generated widespread outrage, with opponents claiming that irreplaceable cultural relics had been destroyed.The museum reacted to the charges by citing the opinion of a court-certified expert, who indicated that the holograms could not have been destroyed or removed without causing damage because they had been glued on around 15 years before.The museum also reported that a second pair of these holograms exists and is in pristine condition, but has not yet been presented.This will be stored in the depot for future exhibits.

The museum has seen a substantial increase in visitors since its reopening, both for regular exhibitions and for nighttime activities such as book presentations, artist lectures, and film screenings.The two residences had 59,471 visits in 2011, and roughly 144,000 in 2019.The Jewish Museum is presently one of Vienna’s top 30 attractions.

Every year, 60 to 70 events are held in the two event rooms, including lectures, readings, book presentations, debates, film screenings, artist talks, and concerts.