Curt Leviant

The Rebirth of Jewish Vienna

Published on February 19, 2004

As our British Airways jet approached Vienna, we were able to make out the famous skyline of the Austrian capital.

Jewish History Draws in Bratislava

Published on January 9, 2003

Once we declared here that we would visit Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, we expected people to say, "How quaint! How interesting! What an unusual place to visit." Instead, we invariably heard, "Why Bratislava?" And in Prague, when we announced our next stop, the reaction was, "Why do you want to go there?" Amazingly, even in beautiful Bratislava itself, residents asked in wonder and bemusement, with no hint of being impolite: "Why would you want to come here?"

Folks in Bratislava are not used to tourists. It is not, as they say in the travel trade, a "destination." No tourist buses crowd the streets like in Prague. No Israelis swarm here. And even if tourists come, we were told, they are ultra-Orthodox Jewish tourists visiting Budapest who take a taxi to Bratislava for a quick visit to the tomb of the revered early 19th century sage Rabbi Moshe Sofer (the Chatam Sofer), and then scoot back to Budapest without so much as a backward glance.