Vien (Hasidic dynasty)

Vien (or Viener Hasidism from "Khal Adas Yereim Vien" translation: Congregation of the Reverent, Vienna) (חסידות וויען) (קהל עדת יראים וויען) is the name of a hasidic group originating in present-day Vienna. Vien is unique in the respect that they are the only Chasidus that follows the Ashkenaz "nusach" (liturgy) in Davening (prayer).

Due to many differing practices from hasidic groups, Vien has often viewed itself as an Oberlander group instead of as a hasidic group. During the past 30 years there "has" been a gradual "hasidishization" of Viener practices among the younger members of the group due to the proximity and political dominance of "mainstream" hasidim in their neighborhoods of Williamsburg (Satmar hasidim) and Borough Park (Bobover hasidim) in Brooklyn, New York.

It has been remarked by very old members of the group that hasidic dress was not at all the norm for members of their group in Vienna before the war, and that it was considered foreign to their practice.

Some of the most notable differences are

• Oberlander style of dress, with men wearing homburg hats or fedoras on weekdays. Married women generally wear wigs without kerchiefs. The usual style of dress is more yeshivish than hasidim in general.

• Stronger attention to secular studies in the Viener schools

• Vieners train for professions such as law and medicine without the qualms that hasidim in general would feel

• English speech is fluent among the vast majority of Vieners, although it is almost always an acquired second or third language (after either Yiddish or Jüdisch deutsch and possibly Hungarian). This is in distinction to hasidic groups in general, where it may be as much as a point of pride that one is not fluent in English.

• Vieners generally follow the centuries-old customs of the Viennese kehilla in preference to those of the hasidim.

• The head of the Viener kehilla is termed the "Rov" (rabbi) rather than as the "Rebbe". This is a differentiation that was common in the European Jewish communities, where the Rov was the legal leader of a community, usually with outstanding educational credentials, and the Rebbe was the leader of the hasidim of the community, who usually acknowledged the Rov as his scholastic and legal superior.

• There is no "real" Viener rabbinical dynasty and rabbinical veneration is much more subdued than in hasidic communities in general. The current Viener Rov is R' Asher Anshel Katz, who prior to his appointment was the Av Beis Din (Chief Justice) of the Belzer Rabbinical Court in Williamsburg.

Main books of the Viener Chasidim

External links