BP MARKOWITZ JOINS VIENNA DEPUTY MAYOR TO ANNOUNCE NEW “DISTRICT PARTNERSHIP”

10:45 AM
TUESDAY, MARCH 6
BOROUGH HALL ROTUNDA
209 JORALEMON ST. (BTW. COURT AND ADAMS ST.)
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN

On Tuesday, March 6, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will join the deputy mayor of Vienna, Renate Brauner, to announce a new partnership intended to strengthen relations between Brooklyn and the Austrian city’s historic Jewish district of Leopoldstadt. Brigitta Blaha, Austria's Consul General in New York, will also attend.

Both leaders will speak before signing a joint proclamation, which will formally recognize the shared multiethnic heritage and the vibrant and closely interconnected Jewish communities of Brooklyn and Leopoldstadt. The event is part of a good-will trip sponsored by the city of Vienna, during which a delegation of political and religious leaders will reach out to Jewish communities in New York.

Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna, was the center of the city’s Jewish community from the 17th century through the 1940s. Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, and Theodor Herzl all called it home. Tragically, many who lived in the district perished or were forced to flee during the Holocaust. Today, Vienna’s Jewish population is once again growing; numbering around 10,000. As the Jewish capital of America—home to nearly half a million Jewish residents—Brooklyn welcomes the chance to form a closer bond with with the residents of Leopoldstadt.

The Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Paul Chaim Eisenberg, and Brooklyn’s Rabbi David Niederman, the President of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, will also speak at the event, which will be attended by members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community and by many high-ranking diplomatic representatives of Austria in New York, including Brigitte Jank, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Vienna; Christian Käsberg, Austrian Trade Commissioner in New York; Walter Nettig, Special Envoy for Economic Affairs, Vienna; Andreas Launer, Deputy Consul General of Austria in New York; Christopher Wieland, Consul General's office; and Jessica Gharamani, Consul General's office.