Austrian Jewish Students Call Government ‘Not Kosher’ Over Far-Right Alliance

Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Foreign Minister and leader of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (OeVP) Image by Getty Images
VIENNA (JTA) – Austrian Jewish students disrupted a Cabinet minister’s speech at a conference on anti-Semitism over the fact that his government includes politicians from the far-right Freedom Party.
The students Wednesday unfurled a banner reading “Mr. Kurz! Your government is not kosher!” during an address by Education Minister Heinz Fassmann. Sebastian Kurz was elected Austrian Chancellor in October. He heads the Austrian People’s Party, a center-right movement. In December, Kurz’s party formed a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party, which former Nazis established in the 1950s.
The action triggered applause from the audience that had gathered in a University of Vienna auditorium to hear Fassman speak during the European Jewish Congress’ “An End to Anti-Semitism” conference held this week in the Austrian capital. The protesters were escorted out of the auditorium by ushers.
Austrian Jews have boycotted the Freedom Party, citing a string of anti-Semitic and racist incidents involving its members and leaders. The party maintains it does not tolerate anti-Semitism. In November, its members in the Austrian parliament demonstratively refused to stand during a minute of silence for victims of the 1938 anti-Semitic pogroms in Austria.
The banner carried the logo of an association of Jewish high school students whose German-language name is Jüdische österreichische HochschülerInnen.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block some weapons sales to Israel
-
Fast Forward Sotheby’s to auction earliest known kiddush cup
-
Opinion Trump’s new tariffs on Israel are a BDS dream come true
-
Fast Forward Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, arrested in ‘Qatar-gate,’ says he’s being unfairly prosecuted for his reporting
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.