Wertheimersche Schul, the former private synagogue of Samson Wertheimer.

The Wertheimersche Schul, now the Austrian Jewish Museum, is the former private residence and synagogue of Samson Wertheimer (1658-1724), Court and chief Warfactor who served three Austrian Emperors. Prince Paul Esterhazy, in recognition of Wertheimer’s services decreed the house to be free, and that Wertheimer and his descendants could live their freely.

This synagogue is one of very few in the German speaking world which was not destroyed in the Reichkristallnacht of November 1938 or subsequent horrors. Following World War II Jewish Russian soldiers used it as a prayer room. After two years of renovation, on June 13th, 1979, the Schul was inaugurated once again as a synagogue by the then chief Rabbi of Vienna. The synagogue’s ornamentation dates from the first half of the 19th century. The Arc of the Torah contains four Torah scrolls once owned by Jews from Burgenland and Western Hungary.