Remember, Recognize, Confront: Anti-Semitism in Viennese Football

To raise broader awareness of the limited attention paid to the issue of antisemitism in Austrian football to date, the fairplay initiative at VIDC has set itself the goal of bringing the educational program to Vienna following the Leopold Stastny exhibition in 2025 and conducting seven workshops addressing antisemitism. Drawing on our many years of experience in facilitating educational initiatives that address discrimination and promote democracy in and through sports, we recognize the gaps in this area of education. With this series of workshops, we have addressed this issue and contributed to the prevention of extremism in the sports community and society at large.

Building on the workshop concept originally designed for the “Superjuden” exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna in 2023/24 and adapted for the accompanying program of the “Leopold Stastny Exhibition” in Innsbruck in 2025, the educational program was revised and tailored to the target audience in the Viennese football community. New methods for exploring the history of influential clubs and figures were added to the workshop concept.

In addition to workshops with sports leaders as part of the conference “Taking a Stand in Sports—Together Against Extremism” in December 2025, three workshops were held as part of the integration festival “From Kabul to Vienna,” organized by the Neuer Start association. In August 2026, the fairplay workshop leaders also held three workshops at the girls’ football club ASK Torpedo 03, bringing the total number of participants in the fairplay anti-Semitism workshops to over 120.

We would like to thank the ÖGPB for its support of the project and look forward to continuing to visit clubs in the Vienna soccer community with workshops in the future.