ALLIANZ, ISRAELITISCHE, ZU WIEN

ALLIANZ, ISRAELITISCHE, ZU WIEN , Jewish society in Vienna, originally intended to operate as a branch of the *Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris, with similar aims. Since the Austrian authorities opposed affiliation with the Alliance, the Vienna Allianz was established as an independent society in 1873. Its first president was Joseph von *Wertheimer. Initially, it concentrated on assisting Jews in *Romania and *Siberia. It aided Jewish victims of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 and supported the Alliance in its efforts to obtain equal civil rights for the Jews in the Balkans. At the Congress of *Berlin in 1878 the Allianz took up the Balkan issue in cooperation with the special Jewish committee for liaison with the congress. With the outbreak of the pogroms in 1881–82, the Allianz participated in relief and migration activities. It organized and maintained a number of educational institutions in Galicia and Bukovina, later supported by the *Baron de Hirsch Fund. The Allianz combatted antisemitism, notably at the *Tisza-Eszlar (1883) and *Polna (1899) blood-libel trials. Relief and emigration projects were established in conjunction with the "Esra" Association of Berlin and the *Jewish Colonization Association (ica) to benefit Romanian and Russian Jewry between 1897 and 1905. During World War i, the society chiefly aided Jewish war victims; after the war it helped Jewish refugees and emigrants in transit through Vienna. The Allianz was liquidated in 1938 after the Anschluss.

bibliography:

Jahresberichte der Israelitischen Allianz zu Wien (1873– ); N.M. Gelber, Aus zwei Jahrhunderten (1924), 131 ff.; idem, in: blbi, 3 (1960), 190–203; Z. Szajkowski, in: jsos, 19 (1957), 36–38.

[Nathan Michael Gelber]