Conference News 2024

Source: ICCJ, Martin Buber House, Heppenheim, June 2, 2024

The field trip of this year's conference takes the conference participants to the famous spa of Bad Ischl in the Austrian Alps, about 50 kilometers from Salzburg.

Bad Ischl is the center of the "Salzkammergut" region, where salt has been mined for 7,000 years, and is one of the three "European Capitals of Culture" this year (the two others are Tartu in Estonia and Bodø in Norway).

In the 19th century, the Austrian Royal Family Habsburg always spent the summer months in Bad Ischl, that thereby turned into a magnet for the Viennese Society and became a meeting place for the Viennese bourgeoisie and a popular place for artists to stay, many of whom were Jewish. The villas of Bad Ischl are a remnant testimony of this era.

In Bad Ischl in 1914, Emperor Franz Josef signed the declaration of war on Serbia, which caused the First World War. There was a branch of the Mauthausen concentration camp in this region; protected by mountains and remote valleys, there also a strong resistance group agitated against National Socialist Regime.

The main destination of our visit is the Catholic pilgrimage site of the Calvary, a prominent example for the long tradition of Calvaries in the Catholic world and culture.

At first glance, this is a place of peace and contemplation. If you dig deeper, one may discover a violent history of devaluation and exclusion of the other, in Bad Ischl directed against Protestants, Jews, and Muslims. A local initiative has set the goal of establishing new traditions of encounter and tolerance there, and we will meet members of the initiative and will get first-hand information about their project and activities.

In addition, there will be the possibility of thematic walking tours in the city: partly touristic, partly on topics of local Jewish history.

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