Kronen Zeitung (online), July 12, 2022

German original: https://www.krone.at/2758537

There has been a Jewish cemetery in Graz since 1864, it became a witness of the darkest chapters of history, but also of reconciliation. After a costly restoration, it was officially reopened on Tuesday. The care is taken over by the city of Graz.

In 1865 the first person was buried here. To this day, the Jewish cemetery in Graz is the largest outside of Vienna and only one of six Jewish cemeteries in Austria that are regularly occupied. Now this place of remembrance shines in a new splendor (the renovation took seven years and cost 1.1 million euros): "The gravestones have been put back in place, the grass has been mowed and the weeds have been pulled," summarizes Elie Rosen, president of the Jewish community in Graz. "The resting of the dead is sacred in Judaism, and maintaining the cemeteries is our duty."

In Graz, the municipality has taken over this duty, money then comes from the so-called Cemetery Fund for the renovation of Jewish cemeteries, which is financed by funds from the Republic and the religious communities.

Already in September, this maintenance agreement will be extended in the municipal council, Mayor Elke Kahr announced in her speech. "We will improve the rhythm and take better care of the stones," she said.

Cemetery must be strictly guarded
However, the president of the provincial parliament, Manuela Khom, saw a downer: "The fact that we cannot open the cemetery to everyone makes me wonder, that we have to guard the synagogue makes me sad," the ÖVP politician alluded to the current rise in anti-Semitism.

"Anti-Semitism is anti-democratic"
The President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, who had traveled from Vienna, also warned, "It is our task to fight anti-Semitism because it is anti-democratic. It is not merely a phenomenon of the right-wing or left-wing fringe, but also in the center of society."