Vienna, part I
Take this waltz/newseltter
And we’re back!
Housekeeping notes: I’m in Vienna! I’m here on something called the Austrian-American Media Fellowship Program. This is also why this newsletter is going out late and is on the shorter side.
As always, if there is something you would like to see more or less of in this newsletter, please let me know. Only paid subscribers can comment on posts (talk around here is cheap, but not free), but all of you are welcome to email me with your thoughts. I just ask that you keep it polite and constructive.
And now onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
I was interviewed for this SPLC piece on Soros conspiracy theories.
I appeared on Deutsche Welle to talk about Soros turning his empire over to his son.
For Foreign Policy, I wrote up a piece based on my impressions of a new book, This Is Europe, and of my conversation with its author.
Carol Schaeffer wrote a good piece on a great site, Eastern European Movies dot com.
Sadly, Fred Van Vleet becomes an unrestricted free agent in July.
On the plane ride over here, I watched season four of a show called Wine Masters. The fourth season is focused on Germany and Austria so I have been delighting/torturing those around me with fun Austrian wine facts.
I’m going to Prague this weekend to see a friend and also to…be in Prague.
MY VIEWS ON…
…Vienna, part one!
I was going to write an essay but have decided that I’ll save that for next week. This is just a scattered list.
It’s so walkable.
The transit system works so well.
The architecture is beautiful.
The white wine is lovely.
Why is the FPÖ, founded in the 1950s—that is, just after World War II—by a literal Nazi, gaining electoral advantage in Austria?
There are so many good museums.
There are so many statues of antisemites.
I love all the cafés.
I hate the politics around national dishes.
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
As promised/forewarned, I am reporting back on DC’s new Capital Jewish Museum. The main exhibit is really great, I think. It doesn’t shy away from the less favorable parts of DC’s Jewish history—like, say, the degree to which the move out to Maryland suburbs was motivated by white flight—and really leans into the idea that we’re a set of overlapping Jewish communities, not one Jewish community, and that there is no one way, historically or presently, to be Jewish in Washington or the United States. I say this as a high compliment: It is obviously the product of a lot of time, thought, energy, and work. (The special exhibit is on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which is very well done and/but will infuriate you depending on how you feel about her decision not to retire.)
From Haaretz: “Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli on Monday called J Street an ‘enemy hostile organization,’ citing the funding it receives from Jewish billionaire George Soros. J Street responded that the minister was attacking a group ‘standing with Israelis to help defend the country’s democratic future – and standing up to the extreme, dangerous agenda of [Netanyahu’s] far-right government.’”
He also said that pro-democracy protesters were worse than BDS.
We went to the Mauthausen concentration camp today. I found myself getting mad at relatively small things. For example: How dare countries that refused to take in refugees put up memorials outside the camp? For another: What kind of perverted person feels the need to carve a swastika into Mauthausen while on a group visit? Or: Why did people feel compelled to buy property by what is now the Gusen memorial? Why would you want to live on top of what was once a concentration camp? But of course what I was actually mad at was the fact that I had a reason to be there. That this camp ever existed at all.
That’s it for now! Hope to see you back here soon.
-ET