Austrian hotel refuses Jewish family

An Austrian hotel reportedly refused to accept a Jewish family as guests.

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ROME (JTA) — An Austrian hotel reportedly refused to accept a Jewish family as guests.

According to the daily Tiroler Tageszeitung, the owner of the Haus Sonnenhof apartment hotel in the village of Serfaus in the Austrian Tyrol told a Viennese Jewish family it did not take Jewish guests, citing "bad experiences" in the past.

The Serfaus region has become so popular with Orthodox Jewish vacationers in recent years that some local hotels have koshered their kitchens and provide timed lights and other accessories for Shabbat observance.

Local officials branded the refusal as "unacceptable." The incident shocked the local tourist industry and made headlines around the world.

Meanwhile, Austrian and Italian media reported that on Saturday, a group of neo-Nazis wearing hoods and giving the Nazi salute disrupted a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Ebensee annex of the Nazi Mauthausen concentration camp. The main ceremony at Mauthausen itself went off without disruption.

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