A bomb which exploded outside the home of Vienna Chief Rabbi Dr. Bela Akiba Eisenberg last Friday night was described by police as the work of amateurs. No one was injured in the attack on the apartment which was unoccupied at the time, but the explosion blew the door off its hinges and shattered several windows. The rabbi and his wife were on vacation out of Vienna.
“The device was an amateurish affair which definitely lacked technical knowledge,” a police spokesman said. He said Eisenberg received several anonymous phone calls in recent days but had not felt threatened. He was not under police protection. The spokesman would not speculate whether the phone calls and the attack were connected.
The rabbi’s son, Paul Chaim Eisenberg, said after the bombing that there had been no threats or phone calls announcing an attack but said that in the aftermath of the trial of Palestinian terrorists in Vienna, protection might be necessary now. Last month, members of a Palestinian terrorist organization were sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack last August on the Jewish community center and synagogue here in which two persons were killed and 18 wounded.