KOLLONITSCH, LEOPOLD°

KOLLONITSCH, LEOPOLD ° (1631–1707), Austrian bishop, moving spirit behind the expulsion of the *Vienna community in 1670. Until 1659 he was with the Knights of Malta. When bishop of Wiener Neustadt, he gained a strong influence over *Leopold i, whom he incited to expel the Jews from Vienna. As a member of the commission of inquiry into the dubious financial activities of Meyer Hirschel, he was instrumental in turning this into a commission preparing the expulsion of the Viennese community. The dedication of the church installed in the Viennese synagogue after the expulsion was delayed because of a conflict on precedence between Kollonitsch and the bishop of Vienna. In his sermon on that occasion he compared the emperor with Abraham, who expelled Hagar and Ishmael, i.e., the synagogue and her children. Kollonitsch became head of the imperial treasury in 1692, and in that capacity he had frequent contact with Samuel *Oppenheimer, Leopold's agent. After first attempting, without success, to oust Oppenheimer, he played a leading role in the agent's imprisonment; among the charges against Oppenheimer was that he was trying to take Kollonitsch's place as president of the court chamber. Kollonitsch is still venerated in Austria today (his statue stands in front of the town hall in Vienna) for his activities during the Turkish siege of Vienna (1683).

bibliography:

D. Kaufmann, Die letzte Vertreibung der Juden aus Wien (1889), 114, 142, 152, 155; H. Tietze, Die Juden aus Wien (1935), index; M. Grunwald, Samuel Oppenheimer (1913), index; C. Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon, 12 (1861), 361–2; M. Grunwald, Vienna (1936), index.

[Meir Lamed]