Austrian Jew here, AMA.

Shalom my friends,

I’m an Austrian/Danish Jew, born in Denmark and raised in both countries. I currently live in Austria full time for med school. I always had a certain ignorant preconception of how Jews from countries with a bigger Jewish population (mainly the US and Israel) view Europe/countries with smaller communities (particularly Austria/Germany) these days. Only on this sub I realised that there are still a lot of unresolved feelings, even amongst young people. I’ve debated making a post like this for a long time, but I figured it would be beneficial to offer myself up for questions and conversation. 🙂

Bit more about me: Both sides of my family are Jewish, my mom is Austrian and my dad Danish. Both sides of my family are from smaller towns and not from Kopenhagen or Vienna, where you may expect the biggest Jewish communities. My mother tongues are German and Danish. I speak and read Hebrew and Yiddish decently, but I can’t spell/write it. I was very much raised in the religion and I still consider myself religious. I keep kosher, pray daily, attend synagogue regularly, wear religious garments on special occasion (and whenever I feel like it outside of those days). I’m 23 years old, I have 5 siblings (1 older sister, the rest is much younger), recently got engaged to my beautiful fiance (she is also Jewish) and we’re planning to get married and start a family here. We do not have the intention of ever moving to a place with a bigger community and I firmly consider myself as much Danish and Austrian, as I consider myself Jewish. I’ve also never been to Israel.

Don’t hold back with the questions. Can be about my family history, why I feel the way I feel about Austria etc..

Thank you to everyone and sorry if my English vocabulary isn’t on point! 🙂