Leon Zelman was a Polish-Austrian co-founder and head of the Jewish Welcome Service, he was a bridge-builder and exceptional figure, and he left behind a lasting legacy as a passionate architect of reconciliation.
Background
Leon Zelman was born on 12 June 1928 in Szczekociny, Poland. He survived the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz and the Mauthausen-Ebensee concentration camp where he was liberated by American forces on 6 May 1945. Leon Zelman lost his entire family in the Shoah.
Education
After hospital and convalescence in Bad Ischl and Bad Goisern, Leon Zelman came to Vienna in 1946. He obtained his university entrance qualification at a tutorial college and began studying Journalism in 1949, obtaining a doctorate in 1954. During his studies Leon Zelman was an officer of the Jewish Students’ Union, first as social secretary and then as president from 1953-1959. In 1951 he helped found the Das Jüdische Echo (The Jewish Echo) magazine.
Career
In 1963, Austria’s leading tour operator, Österreichisches Verkehrsbüro, entrusted Leon Zelman with the task of managing the City Travel Agency to develop Austrian tourism to and from Israel.
With the support of the City of Vienna, Zelman co-founded the Jewish Welcome Service in 1980 to promote tourism with Israel. Due to his tireless efforts the organization’s project “Welcome to Vienna” has made it possible to invite more than 4,000 Austrians exiled from the country in 1938 to return to Vienna and visit their native country with their families. In addition to many special projects, the Jewish Welcome Service also organizes exchange programs for young people from Israel, the United States, and Austria.
Leon Zelman was one of the founders of Jüdisches Echo (1951), an annual journal serving as a forum for Jewish culture and politics with articles by well-known Austrian and international writers. As an active voice in the discourse provided by the Theodor Herzl conferences in Vienna, Zelman added substance to the dialogue and discussion of difficult issues. In recent years he dedicated his efforts to have the Palais Epstein on the Ringstrasse turned into a “House of History,” a project that much to his regret was not realized.
Leon Zelman spent a lifetime promoting Austria’s awareness of the significance of Jewish traditions in culture, science and intellectual life while bringing new life to Vienna’s Jewish community. Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer referred to him as a “moral authority” in Austria, President Heinz Fischer praised him for “transforming the suffering he had to endure as a witness to the Holocaust and as a concentration camp prisoner into activity, love, and zest for action.” Toward the end of his life, he received many awards, including the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria.