Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Photo: Flash90

T

he chancellor of Austria wears his hair slicked back, is partial to skinny suits, and has a deliberate, Teutonic cadence when he speaks. At 31, Sebastian Kurz is among the world’s youngest leaders; his serious, thoughtful mien is one of the reasons.

His Austrian People’s Party is the successor to the Christian Social Party, founded in 1893 by noted anti-Semite Karl Lueger. One of the party’s planks is anti-immigration. In fact, just days before Kurz visited Jerusalem last week to speak at the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, he had expelled 60 imams and closed seven mosques, explaining that “parallel societies, politicized Islam, or radical tendencies have no place in our country.”

So when this same chancellor of Austria declaresthat Israel’s security is in Austria’s vital national security interest, the ears perk up a bit. Kurz cited “Staatsraison” — the core interests of the Austrian state — as the reason behind the shift.

“As Austrians we will support Israel whenever it is threatened,” Kurz told the AJC delegates at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. “We will be committed to the historic moral obligation that we have as Austrians towards the security of Israel within our capacity as a neutral country.”

Kurz is aligned with the right-wing Freedom Party, a movement that has been a magnet for Nazi sympathizers and far-right nationalists. But that party’s leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, has also gone a long way toward disassociating from those elements and embracing Israel and the Jewish community. In his AJC speech, Kurz further called on Austrians to confront their role in the Holocaust.

“As the representative of Austria, I have to admit that there were many people in Austria who did nothing to fight the Nazi regime,” he said. “Far too many actively supported these horrors and even were perpetrators. At that time, many Austrians supported a system which murdered more than six million Jews from all over Europe and beyond, among them more than 60,000 fellow Austrian Jewish citizens.”

According to Rabbi Nechemia Rotenberg, a leading voice among Viennese Jewry who accompanied Kurz on his Israel trip, the chancellor isn’t faking it.

“He really likes Jews,” said Rabbi Rotenberg. “I’ve known him for many years and he truly thinks that Jews are an important part of Europe.” Rotenberg says there’s a roiling debate among Austria’s Jews about the Freedom Party’s true colors, but not about Kurz’s. In fact, Rotenberg says, Kurz may have made his Jerusalem speech in part to emphasize that despite his anti-immigration rhetoric, he fully supports Israel and welcomes Jews in Austria.

It’s an interesting moment, no? The chancellor of Austria, the country that produced Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of Germany, proclaims his love of Israel and his country’s moral responsibility for the Holocaust. At the same time, Hezbollah flags fly at London’s Al-Quds Day march and Jeremy Corbyn leads the Labour Party. In topsy-turvy times, former enemies make political bedfellows. (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 715)