After survival

Leon Zelman is in love with Vienna, his adopted city, where he has carved out a life for himself as a "public Jew," despite the city's anti-Semitic legacy. In Leon Zelman's memoir, we learn how he came to choose Vienna and how he walked a political tightrope for fifty years in postwar Austria. He is founding editor and publisher of Das Judische Echo, a distinguished journal of culture and politics, and co-founder of the Jewish Welcome Service, whose original goal was to document the presence of a vital Jewish community after the Holocaust and, later, to establish student exchange programs between Austria and Israel. In his memoir, we experience his unique perspective on the psychology of displacement and on postwar politics - and we read of his experiences with Bruno Kreisky, the Waldheim affair, the World Jewish Congress, and Edgar Bronfman. However, of his many achievements, Zelman is most proud of providing a bridge between Jews (past and present) and new generations of Austrians, and in recognition of this, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna in 1994.