Middle Ages to the Ottoman Conquest
Archaeological evidence indicates
the existence of Jews in Pannonia and Dacia, who came there
in the wake of the Roman legions. Jewish historical tradition,
however, only mentions the Jews in Hungary from the second
half of the 11th century, when Jews from Germany, Bohemia,
and Moravia settled there. In 1092, at the council of Szabolcs,
the Church prohibited marriages between Jews and Christians,
work on Christian festivals, and the purchase of slaves.
King Koloman protected the Jews in his territory at the
end of the 11th century, when the remnants of the crusader
armies attempted to attack them. Jews resided only in towns
ruled by the bishops where important communities developed:
in Buda, Pressburg (Bratislava, Hung. Pozsony; first mentioned
in 1251), Tyrnau (Trnava, Hung. Nagyszombat), and Esztergom
(by the middle of the 11th century). During the 12th century
the Jews of Hungary occupied important positions in economic
life. The nobles felt it necessary to curb this development,
and in the "Golden Bull" (1222) an article was
included which prohibited the Jews from holding certain
offices and from receiving titles of nobility. The legal
status of the Jews was settled by King B-la IV in a privilege
of 1251, which follows the pattern of similar documents
in neighboring countries. As a result of the Church Council
of Buda in 1279, Jews were forbidden to lease land and compelled
to wear the Jewish badge. In practice, these decrees were
not applied strictly because of the king's objection.
During the reign of Louis the Great (134282),
the hostile influence of the Church in Jewish affairs again
predominated. The Black Death led to the first expulsion
of the Jews from Hungary in 1349. A general expulsion was
decreed in 1360, but in about 1364 their return was authorized
though they were subjected to restrictions. In 1365 the
king instituted the office of "judge of the Jews,"
chosen from among the magnates, who was in charge of affairs
concerning Jewish property, the imposition and collection
of taxes, representation of the Jews before the government,
and the protection of their rights. The reign of Matthias
Corvinus (145890) marked a change in favor of the
status of the Jews, despite his support of the towns, whose
inhabitants, the overwhelming majority of whom were Germans,
were inimical to the Jews as dangerous rivals.
In 1494 there was a blood libel in Tyrnau
and 16 Jews were burned at the stake. In its wake, anti-Jewish
riots broke out in the town; these were repeated at the
beginning of the 16th century in Pressburg, Buda, and other
towns. The economic situation of the Jews was also aggravated:
King Ladislas VI (14901516) canceled all debts owing
to the Jews. In 1515, however, the Jews were placed under
the direct protection of Emperor Maximilian I (the pretender
to the crown of Hungary). During this period, a degrading
form of Jewish oath before the tribunals was introduced;
it remained in force until the middle of the 19th century.
During the reign of Louis II (151626) hatred of the
Jews intensified as a result of the activities of Isaac
of Kaschau, the director of the royal mint, and the apostate
Imre (Emerich) Szerencsms (Latin: Fortunatus), the royal
treasurer who devalued the currency and raised the taxes
in order to provide funds for the war against the Turks.
During the middle of the 14th century the
most important Hungarian community was that of Szekesfehervar
(Ger. Stuhlweissenburg), whose parnasim also directed
the general affairs of the Jews of the country. During the
15th century the community of Buda gained in importance
as Jews expelled from other countries also settled there.
Little information is available on the spiritual life of
Hungarian Jewry during the Middle Ages. Apparently it was
poor in comparison to that in neighboring countries because
of the dispersion of the communities and the small number
of their members. The first rabbi whose reputation spread
beyond Hungary was Isaac Tyrnau (late 14thearly 15th
century); in the introduction to his Sefer ha-Minhagim
("Book of Customs") he describes the poor condition
of Torah study in Hungary.
Period of the Ottoman Conquest
The first, temporary Ottoman
conquest of Buda in 1526 caused many of the Jewish inhabitants
to join the retreating Turks. As a result of this movement,
congregations of Hungarian Jews formed within the important
communities of the Balkans. After central Hungary was incorporated
within the Ottoman Empire in 1541, the Jewish status was
relatively satisfactory. Jewish settlement in Buda was renewed,
and Sephardim of Asia Minor and Balkan origin also settled
there. During the 17th century Buda was one of the most
important communities of the Ottoman Empire. This was largely
due to the authority of its rabbi, Ephraim b. Jacob ha-Kohen,
author of Sha'ar Efrayim (1688).
In the Hapsburg dominions of Hungary in
this period hatred toward the Jews increased. In 1529, following
a blood libel in Bazin, 30 Jews were burned at the stake
and the others were expelled from the town. The Jews were
also expelled from Pressburg, Oedenburg (Sopron), and Tyrnau.
However, the magnates of western Hungary accorded their
protection to the Jews expelled from the towns. The Jews
expelled from Vienna found refuge on the estate of Count
Esterhazy in Eisenstadt and six small neighboring towns
in 1670. It was the oldest of the "Seven Communities"
of Burgenland, granted autonomy in a privilege issued in
1690. In Transylvania, under the rule of Gabriel Bethlen
(161329), the status of the Jews was stabilized by
a privilege granted in 1623. The favorable attitude toward
the Jews there stemmed from Reformation influences in Transylvania.
top
18th to 19th Centuries (Until
1867) By the beginning of the
18th century, when most of Hungary came under Hapsburg rule,
only a few remnants of the ancient Jewish settlement were
to be found there. At this time, however, a movement of
Jewish migration began, marking the formation of Hungarian
Jewry of the modern era. The census of 1735 enumerated 11,600
Jews (in reality, their numbers were far greater) of whom
only a few were born in Hungary, while the majority had
come from Moravia and the minority from Poland. Most of
the Jews were peddlers and small tradesmen. Because of the
hostility of the townsmen, most of them lived in the villages.
During the reign of Maria Theresa (174080) the situation
of the Jews deteriorated. In 1744 an annual "tolerance
tax" of 20,000 guilders was levied on them. It was
gradually increased, until it amounted to an annual sum
of 160,000 guilders at the beginning of the 19th century.
The reign of Joseph II brought some improvements. In 1783
Jews were authorized to settle in the royal cities. There
were 81,000 Jews in Hungary in 1787.
During the "period of reform"
in Hungary in the 1830s and 1840s, the Jewish question was
discussed in the legislative institutions, in literature,
and in the periodicals and press. In general there was a
marked tendency in favor of granting civic rights to the
Jews, but on the whole society took a critical view of the
Jews and assumed an attitude of reservation toward them,
demanding religious and social reforms. The suppression
of the revolution of 184849 also affected the status
of the Jews. Because many of them were active in the revolution,
the Austrian military government imposed a collective fine
of 2,300,000 guilders on the communities; it was later reduced
to 1,000,000 (in 1856, the sum was reimbursed in the form
of a fund for educational and relief institutions). During
the 1850s, the Jews were still subjected to judicial and
economic restrictions (the Jewish oath; the need for a marriage
permit; the prohibition on acquiring real estate; and others).
Most of the restrictions were abolished in 185960;
the Jews were authorized to engage in all professions and
to settle in all localities. The first political leaders
of the new Hungary, expressed their approval in the granting
of civic and political equality to the Jews, and after the
Compromise with Austria, the bill on Jewish emancipation
was passed in Parliament without considerable opposition
(Dec. 20, 1867). During the same period there was a rapid
growth of the Jewish population of Hungary, due both to
natural increase and immigration from neighboring regions,
especially Galicia. The number of Jews had risen to 340,000
by 1850, and in the first population census held in modern
Hungary (1869), 542,000 Jews were enumerated.
top
The Emancipation Period, 18671914
During this period Hungarian
Jewry consolidated from the political, economic, and cultural
aspects and succeeded in establishing a strong position
in the life of the country. Jews played a considerable role
in the development of the capitalistic economy of Hungary,
and from the 1880s large numbers entered the liberal professions,
and also contributed to literary life, in particular in
journalism. In economic activity Jews in Hungary were especially
prominent from the mid-19th century in the marketing and
the export of agricultural produce. Emancipation offered
a wide scope for Jewish economic initiative in the establishment
of banks and other financial enterprises. Jewish capital
contributed significantly to the financing of heavy industry
at the close of the 19th century. The role of the Jews in
agriculture was also considerable, as owners of estates
and in particular as contractors in agricultural management
and marketing. Before World War I, 5560% of the total
number of merchants were Jews, approximately 13% of the
independent craftsmen, 13% of owners of large and medium-sized
estates, and 45% of the contractors. Of those professionally
engaged in literature and the arts, 26% were Jews (of the
journalists, 42%), in law, 45%, and in medicine, 49%. On
the other hand, only a small number of Jews were employed
in public administration. The Jewish population numbered
910,000 in 1910. The identification of the Jews with the
Magyar element in the Hungarian kingdom was an important
factor in determining the general political attitude toward
them. In 1895 the Jewish religion was officially recognized
as one of the religions accepted in the state, and accorded
rights enjoyed by the Catholic and Protestant religions.
The law was enacted despite vigorous objection from the
Catholic Church and its allies the magnates, who succeeded
in delaying its ratification on three occasions.
From the mid-1870s political antisemitism
emerged as an ideological trend, subsequently to become
a political force, led by a member of Parliament. The driving
forces behind it were the resentment felt by those classes
which were dispossessed by the capitalistic economy and
the effects of recent social changes. Thus the main bearers
of antisemitism were the gentry. German examples also played
some part in Hungarian antisemitism. At the beginning of
the 1880s anti-Jewish propaganda intensified and reached
a climax with the blood libel of Tiszaeszlar in 1882, which
aroused much emotion and was the cause of severe anti-Jewish
disturbances in several towns. The acquittal of the accused
and the condemnation of the libel by many gentile leaders
did not calm feelings. In 1884 an antisemitic faction of
17 members of parliament was organized but it did not wield
much influence there, owing to internal dissension. Jewish
defense against antisemitism took the form of apologetic
and polemic literature. In face of the emphatic attitude
of the government and the main political parties against
antisemitism, it was deemed unnecessary to initiate any
organized action. At the turn of the century the Catholic
People's Party became the main bearer of antisemitism. It
regarded it as its main task to combat alleged anti-Christian
and destructive ideas, especially Liberalism and Socialism,
which according to clerical presentation was closely associated
with the Jews. Jewish intellectuals and their allegedly
harmful influence were a particular target for unrestricted
attack. Jewish reaction to clerical antisemitism was stronger,
more pronounced and more courageous than to the antisemitism
in the 1880s, which seemed to be less menacing. Many of
the tenets of antisemitism in this era became cornerstones
of the anti-Jewish ideology in the inter-war period. Antisemitism
was also widespread among the national minorities, especially
the Slovaks, principally kindled because the Jews tended
to identify themselves with the nationalist policy of the
Magyars.
During World War I the Jews suffered losses
in life (about 10,000 Jews fell on the battlefield) and
property. At the same time, anti-Jewish feeling was strong
having increased because of the presence of numerous Jewish
refugees from Galicia, which had been occupied by the Russians,
and through the activities of Jews in the war economy.
top
Internal Life during the 19th
Century In origin, spoken language,
and cultural tradition and customs, Hungarian Jewry was
divided into three sections: the Jews of the northwestern
districts (Oberland) of Austrian and Moravian origin, who
spoke German or a western dialect of Yiddish; the Jews of
the northeastern districts (Unterland) mostly of Galician
origin, who spoke an eastern dialect of Yiddish; and the
Jews of central Hungary, the overwhelming majority of whom
spoke Hungarian. In the classification of the inhabitants
according to nationality, the overwhelming majority of the
Jews in Hungary declared themselves members of the Hungarian
nation; Jewish nationality was not officially recognized
and the Jews thus became a party in the struggle between
the ruling Magyar nation and the national minorities of
Hungary. The internal life of the Jews of Hungary during
the 19th century was marked by polemics between the Orthodox
on the one hand and those advocating modern culture, integration,
and assimilation on the other. At the beginning of the century,
a strict Orthodox trend was established in Hungary under
the leadership of Moses Sofer of Pressburg. This town became
a spiritual center for the Orthodox Jews of Hungary, and
its yeshivah the most important in central Europe; it exerted
much influence over the Hungarian communities and even beyond
them.
From the 1830s, Haskalah made its appearance
in Hungary, and the movement of religious Reform, whose
leading spokesmen there were Aaron Chorin and Leopold Loew,
spread to several communities. Extreme Reform did not strike
roots in Hungary, but the wish to introduce reforms in education
and religious life made progress and aroused violent opposition
from the Orthodox. The polemics between the Orthodox and
the reformers (who in Hungary were referred to as Neologists
gained in intensity to become a central issue at the General
Jewish Congress convened by the government in 1868.
The Congress was called in order to define
the basis for autonomous organization of the Jewish community.
It was attended by 220 delegates (126 Neologists, and 94
Orthodox). The conflict between the factions was aggravated
when the majority refused to accept the demands of the Orthodox
on the validity of the laws of the Shulhan Arukh in the
regulations of the communities. A section of the Orthodox
opposition left the Congress, which continued with its task
and established regulations for the organization of the
communities and Jewish education. The organizational structure
was to be based on the existence of local communities, on
regional unions of communities, and on a central office
which was to be responsible for relations between the authorities
and the communities. The Orthodox did not accept these regulations,
and particularly opposed those concerning the existence
of a single community in every place. They appealed to Parliament
to exempt them from the authority of these regulations.
Parliament consented to their demands (1870) and the Orthodox
began to organize themselves within separate communities.
There were also communities which did not join any side
and retained their pre-Congress status (the status quo communities).
The threefold split left its imprint on the internal organization
and life of Hungarian Jewry until the Holocaust.
Moses Sofer and his school decisively influenced
the development of Orthodox Jewry in western and central
Hungary. Torah study became widespread among large sections
of Orthodox Jewry, and yeshivot were established in every
large community. The most renowned of these, besides that
of Pressburg, were those of Galanta, Eisenstadt, Papa, Huszt
(Khust), and Szatmar (Satu-Mare). During the 19th century
the Hungarian rabbinate was of a high standard and produced
halakhists, authors of religious works, and community leaders,
such as Sofer's son Abraham Samuel Benjamin Sofer and grandson
Simhah Bunem Sofer, Moses Schick, and Judah Aszd (17941866)
in Szerdahely (Mercurea), Aaron David Deutsch (181278)
in Balassagyarmat, Solomon Ganzfried, and others. Torah
literature underwent a considerable development, and a place
of importance was held by learned periodicals in this sphere.
Hasidism spread in the northeastern regions
of Hungary, where it did not encounter violent opposition
from the rabbis. Isaac Taub is regarded as having introduced
Hasidism into Hungary; after his death the Hasidim there
gathered around Moses Teitelbaum in Satoraljaujhely. He
founded a hasidic-rabbinical dynasty which was active in
Maramarossziget (Sighet) and its surroundings. Another center
of Hasidim was Munkacs (Mukachevo), in Carpathian Russia,
where Isaac Elimelech Shapira settled. In addition, the
dynasties of the zaddikim of Belz, Zanz, and Vizhnitz
had considerable influence in Hungary. Hasidism left its
imprint on the Jews of the northeastern regions, and differences
in customs and way of life arose between the Hasidim in
Hungary and the section influenced by Pressburg and its
school.
From the close of the 19th century, assimilation
became widespread within Hungarian Jewry and there was an
increase in apostasy especially among the upper classes.
Mixed marriage became a common occurrence, particularly
in the capital.
Attachment to Erez Israel was already ingrained
within Hungarian Jewry from the period of Sofer, upon whose
recommendation some of his distinguished disciples had emigrated
to Erez Israel where they ranked among the leaders of the
Ashkenazi yishuv during the middle of the 19th century.
During the Hibbat Zion period, Josef Natonek was active
in Hungary, and some believe that this activity influenced
Theodor Herzl, who was born in Budapest and spent his childhood
and youth in Hungary. The nationalist ideal and political
Zionism, however, only seriously attracted a limited circle
of the academic youth, the intellectuals, and a minority
of Orthodox Jewry, while assimilationist circles and the
overwhelming majority of the Orthodox were sharply and firmly
opposed to them. The Kolel Ungarn (Hungarian Community)
in Jerusalem was a center of extremist opposition to Zionism
in Erez Israel, and the Neturei Karta faction later developed
from it.
top
1919 to 1939 The
Communist regime which came to power in Hungary after its
defeat in World War I included a considerable number of
Jews in the upper ranks of the government led by Kun. After
the Communist revolution had been suppressed, the establishment
of the new regime was accompanied by riots and acts of violence
against the Jews"The White Terror"the
number of whose victims has been estimated at 3,000 dead.
With the stabilization of the political
situation, the acts of violence abated, but the declared
policy of the government remained antisemitic. In 1920,
a numerus clausus bill was passed, restricting the number
of Jews in the higher institutions of learning to 5%. The
situation improved while Stephen Bethlen was prime minister
(192131), and the negative reactions aroused by the
anti-Jewish policy weakened this tendency, even though widespread
antisemitic activity was uninterruptedly carried on. In
1928 an amendment was introduced to the numerus clausus
act, but the restrictions were not entirely abolished.
Another act of the same year granted the
Jews the same right of representation in the Upper House
of Parliament as the other religious communities. Rabbis
Immanuel Loew for the Neologists and Koppel Reich for the
Orthodox were elected to sit there. During the first few
years after World War I, Zionist activity was brought to
a halt by the government, but in 1927 the regulations of
the Zionist Organization were again ratified and it was
authorized to renew its organizational and propaganda activities.
The relative tranquilization in the situation
of the Jews in Hungary also continued after the resignation
of Bethlen and the rise to power of the Right. A sharp anti-Jewish
turn took place during the late 1930s as a result of the
strengthening of the Rightist circles and growing German-Nazi
influence. In 1938 the "First Jewish Law" was
presented to Parliament; it restricted the number of Jews
in the liberal professions, in the administration, and in
commercial and industrial enterprises to 20%. The term "Jew"
included not only members of the Jewish religion, but also
those who became apostates after 1919 or who had been born
of Jewish parents after that date. The bill aroused objections
from the opposition parties, but it was ratified by both
Houses of Parliament. In 1939 the "Second Jewish Law"
was passed; it extended the application of the term "Jew"
on a racial basis and came to include some 100,000 Christians
(apostates or their children) and also reduced the number
of Jews in economic activity, fixing it at 5%; the political
rights of the Jews were also restricted. As a result of
these laws, the sources of livelihood of 250,000 Hungarian
Jews were closed for them.
One reaction of the Jews to the anti-Jewish
legislation was expressed by their emphasis on their patriotic
attachment to Hungary, voiced by their official representatives;
the Jews generally believed that the anti-Jewish current
was only a fleeting phenomenon. Jewish communal organizations,
led by the community of Budapest, began to develop ramified
social aid activities to assist those ousted from economic
life. Within certain sections of the community conversions
increased; there were up to 5,000 apostates after the enactment
of the First Jewish Law. However, wide circles of the Jewish
public reacted by a return to Judaism, through fostering
Jewish values, literature, and religious education. Zionism
was strengthened and aliyah from Hungary to Erez
Israel increased.
Hungarian Jewry in the interwar period
underwent great changes. Following the dismemberment of
the country after World War I, the number of Jews was reduced
by about a half (473,000 in 1920). Their number further
declined during the 1920s and 1930s. The demographic decline
of Hungarian Jewry in this period is evident by the sharp
decline in the younger age groups (020) and increase
in the older age groups. There was a marked tendency in
the interwar years to concentrate in towns, especially in
the capital. Over half of Hungary's Jewish population lived
in Greater Budapest. The Neolog communities had 65% of the
Jews, as against 29% Orthodox, and 5% status quo. This distribution
was due to the fact that the great Orthodox centers of prewar
times were ceded to the successor states.
top
Holocaust Period The
history of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry encompasses
the Jewish population of the enlarged state of Hungary.
In 1930, 444,567 Jews had lived in Hungary within the boundaries
fixed in 1920. An additional 78,000 Jews came under Hungarian
rule when southern Slovakia was annexed by Hungary (Nov.
2, 1938). The 72,000 Jews who lived in the Czechoslovak
province of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia came under Hungarian
jurisdiction when Hungary moved in on March 1516,
1939. The Jewish population of the formerly Rumanian northern
Transylvania (awarded to Hungary on Aug. 30, 1940) numbered
149,000. According to the Jan. 31, 1941, census out of a
total population of 14,683,323 the Jews numbered 725,007
(184,453 of them in Budapest). In April 1941 there were
about 20,000 Jews in the former Yugoslav territory, occupied
in the course of joint German-Hungarian military operations.
In conformity with the "Third Jewish
Law" (1941), which defined the term "Jew"
on more radical racial principles, 58,320 persons not belonging
to the Jewish faith were considered Jewish. Thus the total
number of persons officially registered as Jews in mid-1941
was over 803,000. According to a generally accepted estimate,
the actual number of Christians of Jewish origin exceeded
by far the officially recorded 58,320. Consequently, the
total number of persons liable to racial discrimination
in mid-1941 may be put at a minimum of 850,000.
The Third Jewish Law, based on the Nuremberg
laws, prohibited intermarriage. By mid-1941 the anti-Jewish
measures had placed Hungarian Jewry in a most disadvantageous
position in every sphere of political, economic, cultural,
and social life. The government Party of Hungarian Life
pursued a pro-Nazi, antisemitic policy, while various national-socialist
groupings and the Arrow-Cross Party exerted increasing pressure
upon the government to stiffen radically its anti-Jewish
policy.
The decimation of the Jewish population
began in the fall of 1940, shortly after the incorporation
of northern Transylvania, from where thousands of Jews whose
citizenship was in question were forcibly expelled, mainly
to Rumania. The first large-scale loss of life among Hungarian
Jewry occurred in July 1941, when the Office for Aliens'
Control expelled to German-held Galicia about 20,000 Jews,
whose Hungarian citizenship was in doubt (mostly inhabitants
of the areas annexed from Czechoslovakia), as well as refugees
from neighboring countries. They were mostly concentrated
in Kamenets-Podolski and murdered in the autumn of 1941
by S.S. men, assisted by Hungarian troops. The second great
loss occurred in January 1942, when 1,000 Jews were massacred
by gendarmes and soldiers in Becska, mainly in Novi-Sad.
In May 1940, special forced labor units had already been
set up for enlisting Jews, who were excluded from army service.
When Hungary joined the war against the Soviet Union, the
labor units were sent with the troops. At that time there
were 10 to 12 labor battalions comprising about 14,000 men,
but later the number of Jews on the eastern front reached
50,000. After the great breakthrough of the advancing Soviet
army near the River Don (January 1943) the Second Hungarian
Army disintegrated and fled in panic. It is estimated that
of the 50,000 Jews, 40,00043,000 died during the retreat.
The position of the labor units which remained
in Hungary was much better, especially when on March 10,
1942, the extreme antisemitic prime minister was succeeded
by the moderate, conservative Miklus Kellay. Nevertheless,
that month Kellay announced the draft law for expropriation
of Jewish property and envisaged clearing the countryside
of Jews. He successively announced measures to be taken
to eliminate Jews from economic and cultural life. In April
1942 Kellay pledged the "resettlement" of 800,000
Jewsas a "final solution of the Jewish question,"
pointing out, however, that this could be implemented only
after the war. Presumably, these extreme anti-Jewish plans
were meant to curry favor with the Germans, but in fact
Kellay, in an agreement with the regent Nicolas Horthy,
refrained from drastic steps and resisted pressure from
the German government. Dissatisfied with Kellay's halfhearted
measures, Germany exerted greater pressure upon Hungary
from October 1942 for legislation for the complete elimination
of the Jews from economic and cultural life, for compulsory
wearing of the yellow badge, and finally, their evacuation
to the east. Similar interventions went on early in 1943.
The Kellay government rejected the German requests for deportation
mainly on economic grounds, arguing that deportation would
ruin Hungary's economy and would harm Germany as well.
In April 1943 Hitler conferred with Horthy
and condemned Hungary's handling of the "Jewish question"
as irresolute and ineffective. Again the Hungarians rejected
the German demands for the deportations, pointing out the
necessity of waiting for favorable circumstances. By 1943
the Kellay government completed the program of eliminating
the Jews from public and cultural life, while a numerous
clauses was applied in economic life to restrict the position
of the Jews according to their percentage in the total population
(about 6%). The Jewish agricultural holdings were almost
entirely liquidated, while the "race-protective"
legislation segregated Jews from Hungarian society. However,
in the course of 1943 and beginning of 1944 the Kellay government
secretly conferred with the Western Allies in preparation
for Hungary's extrication from the war. Under these circumstances
the Nazi-style handling of the "Jewish question"
hardly suited the country's interests. In December 1943,
military court procedure was initiated against the criminals
involved in the anti-Serbian and anti-Jewish massacres in
Becska (January 1942). The Germans regarded the prosecution
of the murderers of Jews as an attempt to gain footing with
the Jews and the Allies, and the incident contributed to
aggravate the tension between Berlin and Budapest.
top
German Occupation
By the beginning of March 1944 the occupation
of Hungary was decided upon in Berlin. One of the German
arguments for this step was the alleged sabotage committed
by the Hungarian government against the "final solution
of the Jewish question." Kellay's rejection of the
German demands for deportation was considered as evidence
of Hungary's determination to join forces with the Western
Allies. Operation Margaret, that is, the occupation of Hungary,
took place on March 19, 1944. By the time of the German
occupation, close to 63,000 Jews (8% of the Jewish population)
had already fallen victim to the persecution. Prior to the
occupation, on March 12, 1944, Adolf Eichmann, at the head
of S.S. officers of the R.S.H.A. (Reich Security Main Office)
began preparations in Mauthausen, Austria, for setting up
the Sondereinsatzkommando (Special Task Force) destined
to direct the liquidation of Hungarian Jewry. Most of the
Sonderkommando members, among them Hermann Krumey and Dieter
Wisliceny, arrived in Budapest on the day of the occupation,
while Eichmann arrived on March 21. On the German side special
responsibility for Jewish affairs was assigned to Edmund
Veesenmayer, the newly appointed minister and Reich plenipotentiary,
and to Otto Winkelmann, higher S.S. and police leader and
Himmler's representative in Hungary.
On March 22 a new government was set up
under the premiership of the former Hungarian minister in
Berlin. The government consisted of extreme pro-Nazi elements,
willing collaborators with Germany in the accomplishment
of the "Final Solution." The new regime's minister
of the interior Andor Jaross was in charge of Jewish affairs;
however, actual execution of the anti-Jewish measures was
directed by Laszlo Endre and Laszlo Baky, state secretaries
of the Ministry of the Interior. Immediately after the entry
of German troops into Hungary, hundreds of prominent Jews
were arrested in Budapest and several other cities. Over
3,000 were detained by the end of March, increasing to 8,000
by mid-April. A great number of provincial Jews were rounded
up, mainly at the Budapest railway stations, on the very
evening of the occupation. They were interned at Kistarcsa
and other concentration camps.
The Jewish organizations were dissolved
throughout the country, and on March 20 a Jewish council
with eight members was set up in Budapest upon orders from
the Germans, to act as the head of the Jewish communities.
The Germans aimed at manipulating this authorized Jewish
body to execute their measures without resistance and avoid
an atmosphere of panic. By the end of March, similar Jewish
councils were constituted in several larger provincial towns.
However, unlike the Budapest Jewish Council, their activity
was minimal and their existence short-lived. From the first
days of the occupation, Eichmann and his collaborators endeavored
to persuade the members of the central Jewish council that
deportations were not intended and that Hungarian Jewry
would not undergo brutal treatment. They assured them that
no harm would befall the Jews, on condition that they obediently
carry out the directives regarding their segregation and
their new economic status.
The "Provisional Executive Committee
of the Jewish Federation of Hungary," appointed by
the Hungarian government on May 6, likewise aimed at ensuring
complete observance of the anti-Jewish directives. By the
time this body was set up, the Jews of the provinces had
already been concentrated in ghettos, and Jewish community
life had ceased to exist, so that the "Executive Committee"
was a mere fiction, devised with the additional aim of lending
a semblance of legality to the government's measures. Another
task imposed on the Jewish bodies established after the
occupation was to assure the complete and unhindered transfer
of Jewish assets and valuables. Simultaneously with the
German actions, the government enacted intensive anti-Jewish
legislation. Numerous anti-Jewish decrees aimed at the total
exclusion of Jews from economic, cultural, and public life.
Jews were dismissed from all public services and excluded
from the professions; their businesses were closed down
and any assets over 3,000 penge (about $300) confiscated,
as well as their cars, bicycles, radios, and telephones.
On March 31, 1944, Jews were ordered to
wear the yellow badge. Actually, in a few places (e.g.,
Munkacs), the local authorities issued this order earlier.
On April 7, the decision was taken to concentrate the Jews
in ghettos and afterwards to deport them. The ghettoization
process was entrusted to the Hungarian gendarmerie in collaboration
with the local administration. By mid-April an agreement
was reached between the Hungarian government and the Germans
stipulating the delivery of 100,000 able-bodied Jews to
German factories in the course of April and May. By the
end of April the Germans modified this plan by dismissing
any criteria on ability to work and demanded the deportation
of the entire Jewish population to concentration camps in
the eastern territories. However, at the end of April, several
groups of able-bodied Jews were transported from the outskirts
of Budapest to Germany (1,800 persons on April 28, and a
smaller group from the Topolya concentration camp on April
30).
top
Ghettoization and Deportation
The ghettoization was started
in the provinces. The Jews of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia were
evacuated to ghettos on April 1619; up to April 23,
about 150,000 Jews were concentrated on the northeastern
areas of Hungary, pending their deportation to Auschwitz,
which started on May 15, with daily transports of 2,0003,000.
At the same time as the Carpatho-Ruthenian action, some
ghettos were set up sporadically in different parts of the
country, arbitrarily initiated by local authorities (e.g.,
the Nagykanizsa Jews were forced into a ghetto on April
19; a number of the Jews of the Veszprem county were crammed
into improvised concentration camps as early as the last
days of March). North Transylvanian Jewry was evacuated
to ghettos in the first days of May, when the process of
ghettoization had already been concluded in northeastern
Hungary. The ghettoization in the rest of the country, except
for the capital, was completed simultaneously. The Jews
were driven out of their homes in the night, allowed to
pack only a minimal supply of food and some strictly necessary
personal belongings, and then assembled at temporary collection
points. The provisional ghettos were set up in school buildings,
synagogues, or factories outside the towns. In the large
Jewish population centers, ghettos were established in the
vicinity of the towns, mainly in brickyards, barracks, or
out in the open.
Ghettoization was immediately followed
by an inventory of the movable property and the sealing
of the houses that had belonged to Jews. The Jews were permitted
to add a few items of food and clothing to their scanty
baggage during the inventory, which in most cases was accompanied
by gendarme brutality and looting by the civilian auxiliary
personnel. In this first phase of the ghettoization, the
Jews in the villages were evacuated to temporary ghettos
(collection points) set up exclusively in, or outside towns
(from two to four collection ghettos per county). The second
phase consisted of the evacuation from the collection ghettos
to the larger, central ghettos.
About 8,000 detainees were interned in
a number of concentration camps (e.g., Kistarcsa, Sarvar).
The inmates were partly political prisoners and partly Jews
from the provinces rounded up in Budapest. They also faced
deportation along with the Jews of the ghettos. The living
conditions of over 400,000 Jews forced into makeshift ghettos
were characterized by overcrowding and lack of elementary
hygienic facilities. Some of the inmates had no roof over
their heads, and some ghettos were erected entirely outdoors.
During the short period that ghettos existed in the provinces,
inhuman conditions and torture claimed a number of victims
and there were also numerous cases of suicide. When the
next phase of the deportation began, the majority of the
Jewish population was already in a state of physical and
mental exhaustion.
The deportations, which started on May
14, were jointly organized by the Hungarian and the German
authorities; but the Hungarian government was solely in
charge of the Jews' transportation up to the northern border.
Between May 1415 and June 7, about 290,000 persons
were evacuated from Zone I (Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia) and
Zone II (northern Transylvania). More than 50,000 Jews of
northwestern Hungary and those north of Budapest constituting
Zone III were deported by June 30. Zone IV (southern Hungary,
east of the Danube), with about 41,000 persons, was also
evacuated by the end of June. The last phase was concluded
by July 9 with the deportation of more that 55,000 Jews
from Zone V, comprising Transdanubia and the outskirts of
Budapest. According to Veesenmayer's reports, a total of
437,402 Jews were deported from the five zones. (There appears
a slight difference, within a few thousand, between Veesenmayer's
figures and other sources.) The bulk of the transports reached
Auschwitz via central Slovakia by freight train. Each freight
car was to carry about 45 persons, but actually in most
cases 80100 persons were crammed in under hardly bearable
conditions. Thousands of sick, elderly people, and babies
died in the trains during the three to five days of the
journey, due to lack of water and ventilation.
The ghettoization and deportation were
not condemned by Hungarian public opinion; instances of
overt sympathy and willingness to help and rescue were an
exception to the rule. Noteworthy among the few protests
was the outspoken plea of Aron Marton, the Catholic bishop
of Alba-Iulia. Hungarian authorities expelled him from Kolozsvar
(now Cluj) in May 1944 for preaching in defense of the Jews.
Attempts were made throughout the country to evade deportation,
but only in northern Transylvania were most of them successful,
due to its common border with Rumania. The number of Jews
who managed to cross the south Transylvanian border and
escape to Rumania in AprilJune may be put at about
2,0002,500. In addition, a few hundred Jews went into
hiding in the countryside, especially in northern Transylvania.
Likewise some hundreds of Jews were spared deportation,
when exempted by the authorities on grounds of military
or other merit. A few thousand provincial Jews managed to
evade deportation by either hiding in Budapest, or living
in the Budapest ghettos alongside the bulk of the capital's
Jewish population. About 95% of the deportees were directed
to Auschwitz, where, under camp commander Rudolf Hoess,
large-scale preparations had been made for their mass murder.
The able-bodied were dispersed to 386 camps throughout the
German-held Eastern territories and in the Reich. A small
percentage of provincial Jewry managed to evade deportation
to Auschwitz. In the framework of a deal made by Kasztner
with Eichmann, some transports totaling several thousand
(mostly from Debrecen, Szeged, and Szolnok) were directed
to Austria. This group was spared selections, families remained
united, and the majority survived.
In January 1943 a Zionist relief and rescue
committee was formed in Budapest to help Jews in the neighboring
countries. Otto Komoly was president of the committee, Kasztner
its vice-president, and Joel Brand was responsible for the
underground rescue from Poland. Shortly after the German
occupation, Kasztner and Brand established contact with
Eichmann. Their names, especially that of Kasztner, became
linked with the transaction known as Blut fuer Ware
("Blood for Goods"). Brand was sent to Istanbul
to mediate between the Allies and the Germans for war materials,
particularly trucks, in exchange for Hungarian Jewish lives,
a mission doomed to failure. Kasztner went to Switzerland
several times to meet with representatives of the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Agency, and
War Refugee Board in order to work out a rescue plan and
arrange its financing by Jewish organizations. Kasztner
succeeded in concluding a deal with Eichmann, which resulted
in the transport on June 30, 1944, of 1,658 Jews from Hungary
to Switzerland at the fixed price of $1,000 per head and
two further transports on August 18 and December 6, consisting
of 318 and 1,368 Jews respectively, most of whom were of
Hungarian and Transylvanian origin. The first group was
first detained at Bergen-Belsen, but, as a result of Himmler's
intervention, finally reached Switzerland by the end of
December.
After deportations from the provinces were
completed, preparations went under way for the deportation
of Budapest Jews. The timing of the Budapest deportation
to follow the completion of the "Entjudung"
("ridding of Jews") of the provinces, was set
for technical, economic, and tactical reasons. On June 15,
1944, the Ministry of the Interior ordered the concentration
of the Budapest Jews in some 2,000 houses marked with a
yellow star and designated to enclose about 220,000 Jews.
On June 25 a curfew was ordered for the capital's Jews,
who from this date led the life of prisoners in utter destitution.
The series of foreign interventions in May increased in
June, taking on a more organized form and exerting a favorable
influence upon the fate of Budapest Jewry.
In June the Swiss press, and subsequently
the press in other neutral states and in the Allied countries,
published details about the fate of Hungarian Jewry. The
press campaign and the activity of Jewish leaders in Switzerland
brought about a series of interventions with Horthy. Among
others, the king of Sweden, the Vatican, and the International
Red Cross intervened. Among the Hungarian personalities
who interceded with Horthy for the cessation of the deportations
were Protestant bishops and Prince-Primate Justinianus Seradi.
These interventions, along with the concealed intention
of the Hungarian government to create favorable conditions
in case of a separate armistice treaty with the Allies,
brought a halt to further deportations on July 8. At the
same time Baky and Endre, the chief Hungarian organizers
of the "Entjudung," were dismissed. At
the end of July, Himmler also gave his approval to the suspension
of the deportations. Meanwhile, as many Jews as possible
were successfully placed under the protection of some neutral
states (e.g., Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal).
In August a turning point was reached when
Horthy and his supporters dismissed the Sztjay government.
A new government less servile to the Germans was formed
under General Geza Lakatos, with the aim of preparing the
armistice with the Allies. Throughout July and August the
situation of the Budapest Jews and of the labor conscripts
appeared more hopeful. However, on September 4, the Lakatos
government declared war against Rumania, which had joined
the Allies (August 23). Hungarian units crossed the south
Transylvanian border and perpetrated acts of savagery against
the Jewish residents in the strip occupied up to the beginning
of October. They committed murders at Ludus and Arad, and
made preparations for the introduction of anti-Jewish measures
in the temporarily occupied territories.
On October 15, the fate of the Budapest
Jews took a dramatic turn for the worse. After Horthy's
unsuccessful attempt to extricate Hungary from the war,
the Germans activated the Arrow-Cross Party of Ferenc Szalasi,
which immediately initiated an unprecedented reign of anti-Jewish
terror. Eichmann, who had been obliged to leave Hungary
on August 24 (after succeeding in deporting the inmates
of the Kistarcsa and Sarvar camps, against Horthy's orders),
returned to Budapest on October 17 and resumed his activity
for deporting the capital's Jews. After October 15, the
Budapest Jews were divided into two groups: the majority
were enclosed in a central ghetto, while the smaller segment
lived in the blocks and quarters "protected" by
various neutral states (e.g., by Switzerland and Sweden).
As a preliminary step in the deportations, the Jewish male
population aged 16 to 60 was ordered out to work in fortifications.
In accordance with the deportation plans, two transports
of about 50,000 each were to leave in November for Austria
and the Reich. However, these plans were thwarted by the
military situation on the Eastern front. On November 2,
Soviet troops reached the outskirts of Budapest. Under these
circumstances the labor battalions were driven toward western
Hungary, and on November 8, a group of about 25,000 Budapest
Jews were directed on foot toward Hegyeshalom at the Austrian
border. They were later followed by other contingents of
up to 60,000. A high percentage of persons on this "death
march" perished on the way. From the Arrow-Cross seizure
of power until the Soviet occupation of Budapest (Jan. 18,
1945), about 98,000 of the capital's Jews lost their lives
in further marches and in train transports, as well as through
Arrow-Cross extermination squads, starvation, disease, and
cases of suicide. Some of the victims were shot and thrown
into the Danube.
top
Resistance and Rescue
Organized resistance among Budapest Jews
made itself felt only in the autumn months, but it failed
to develop on a large scale. A few small, armed groups were
active in Budapest, attacking Arrow-Cross men and performing
rescue operations. In several cases, armed Jewish youths,
disguised as Arrow-Cross men or as soldiers, prevented executions
and killed Szalasi's men. One form of resistance was the
Zionist halutz movement rescue activities, which
consisted in forging identity cards, supplying money, food,
and clothing, and facilitating escape or hiding. An attempt
by the Haganah to activate the rescue work by sending Hungarian-born
Jews from Palestine failed in the summer of 1944. A few
members of the Haganah were parachuted by the British into
Yugoslav territory, from where they crossed into Hungary,
but were captured. Two of them were executed (Perez Goldstein
and Hannah Szenes). The rescue operation by some neutral
states proved to be efficient. Up to the end of October
1944, more than 1,600 Jews in Budapest were provided with
San Salvador documents. By the end of the year, the number
of Jews enjoying the protection of neutral states and of
the International Red Cross in the "protected houses"
rose to 33,000. The Arrow-Cross authorities recognized,
among others, 7,800 Swiss and 4,500 Swedish safe-conduct
passes. Prominent figures in this rescue work were Charles
Lutz, a Swiss diplomat, and Raoul Wallenberg, secretary
of the Swedish Legation in Budapest.
By September-October 1944, northern Transylvania
was occupied by the Soviet armies, followed by Hungary's
eastern, southern, and northeastern strip. The Soviet forces
occupied Budapest on Jan. 18, 1945, and by early April all
"Trianon" Hungary. The Soviet occupation of Hungary
brought freedom to the Budapest ghettos and to those labor
conscripts who were within the borders.
top
Demographic Total
Statistical data on the destruction of
Hungarian Jewry show that about 69,000 Jews were saved in
Budapest's Central Ghetto and 25,000 in the "Protected
Ghetto." In addition to these two categories, which
also include persons safeguarded in the buildings of some
neutral diplomatic missions, about 25,000 Jews came out
of hiding in Budapest. A few thousand survived in Red Cross
children's homes. An exact assessment of the number of Jews
who returned to Hungary is rendered difficult by the fact
that northern Transylvania, Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, Felvidek,
and Bacska were once again detached from it.
Throughout the first postwar months there
was a large-scale fluctuation of population between "Trianon"
Hungary and the so-called "succession states."
The number of Jewish forced laborers who returned to Hungary
or were liberated there, including those who later returned
from Soviet captivity, may be estimated at 20,000. By the
end of 1945 some 70,000 deportees had returned. The number
of Jews saved in all these categories in postwar Hungary
totaled 200,000. The losses of Hungarian Jewry from the
Trianon territories was 300,000. A relatively high proportion
of the survivors were non-Jews, who were, however, considered
Jews according to the racial laws.
A total number of about 25,00040,000
Jews who were saved returned to northern Transylvania; some
15,000 to Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia and about 10,000 to Felvidek,
reattached to Czechoslovakia. The number of Jews who returned
to Bacska is estimated at a few thousand. The relatively
small number of survivors outside Hungary, who failed to
return in 1945 to their former homes, cannot be assessed.
Of the 825,000 persons considered Jews
in the 194145 period in greater Hungary, about 565,000
perished, and about 260,000 survived the Holocaust.
[Bela Adalbert Vago] top
Contemporary Period
As a result of the Holocaust, the demographic
composition and geographical distribution of Hungarian Jewry
had radically changed after the war. When the survivors
of the death camps and forced labor returned to Hungary,
a few took up residence in their previous homes, and 266
communities were reestablished (out of 473). In the following
years, however, most left the provincial towns, and the
Jewish communities there ceased to exist.
The postwar Hungarian regime abolished
the anti-Jewish legislation enacted by its predecessor.
The men who had governed during the war and many who had
been directly responsible for the deportation and destruction
of Jews were brought to trial and sentenced to death, and
thousands of other war criminals were imprisoned. On the
other hand, no comprehensive law was passed for the restitution
of Jewish property that had been confiscated or forcibly
sold, and the existing regulations and ordinances did not
provide a solution for this vital problem. Although antisemitism
was officially banned, there were strong anti-Jewish sentiments
among the population, which blamed the Jews for the country's
postwar economic plight. This was felt particularly in the
provincial towns, whose inhabitants resented the return
of the surviving Jewish deportees. In May 1946 there was
a pogrom in Kunmadaras, and in July another took place in
Miskolc, in which five Jews were killed and many injured.
Antisemitic feelings were also voiced in the political literature
of this period, in which the Jews were warned "not
to try to capitalize on their sufferings during the war."
The pogroms ceased at the end of 1946, when the economy
was stabilized, but popular antisemitism continued to exist
and found expression in such acts as the desecration of
cemeteries. Recurrent antisemitism strengthened the desire
of the Jews to emigrate.
The central Jewish institutions reconstituted
after the war were the central office of the Neolog communities
(which also included the "status quo" communities)
and the central office of the Orthodox communities. Whereas
before the war the Jewish leadership was composed of the
Jewish financial aristocracy, the postwar leadership had
a broad popular base, with Zionists playing a prominent
role.
In December 1948, an agreement was reached
between the government and the Jewish community, similar
to agreements with other religious denominations, whereby
the Jewish community was accorded official recognition,
guaranteed freedom of religious practice, and assured of
financial support. This agreement was renewed in 1968. In
1950, at the urging of the government the three religious
trendsNeolog, Orthodox, and status quounited
into a single community organization. The Orthodox, who
had voiced strong opposition to the forced unification,
were granted a large measure of autonomy within the unified
organization. Leadership of the community was under the
direction of the "National Representation of Hungarian
Israelites", while religious affairs were handled by
two rabbinical committeesone Neolog and one Orthodox;
the chairman of each committee was recognized as chief rabbi
of the respective religious trend. A Jewish periodical,
Uj Elet ("New Life"), was founded
as a biweekly, in November 1945.
After the liberation of the country, Hungarian
Jewry entered upon a new era of public activities. The Zionist
Movement, including its various subdivisions and youth movements,
was greatly strengthened and became very active in the field
of education. It established a network of schools, in which
Hebrew was the medium of instruction, as well as other youth
institutions. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
(J.D.C.) played an important role in the rehabilitation
of the impoverished community, spending as much as $52,000,000
on food, welfare, and education, during the period 194652.
The transformation of Hungary into a people's
republic under Communist rule in 1949 was a fateful turning
point for the country's Jews. The effects of this move were
felt in the economic situation of the Jews, in their public
life, and in their educational activities. The nationalization
of the means of production, agencies, and services deprived
large sections of the Jewish population of their means of
livelihood. The new regime adopted a hostile attitude to
the Jewish national movement, and Zionist activities were
severely curtailed and eventually outlawed. The Zionist
organization was disbanded in March 1949, and its leaders
were sentenced to prison terms. Contacts between Hungarian
Jews and world Jewry were restricted. Due to the strained
relations with the United States, the work of the J.D.C.
was at first curtailed, and in the beginning of 1953 brought
to a complete stop. Jewish educational institutions were
absorbed by the general school system (a step which had
far-reaching negative effects upon the education of Hungarian
Jewish youth).
The growing severity of the Communist regime
and the struggle it carried on against opposition resulted
in large-scale expulsions from the cities to the provinces
in 1951. An estimated 20,000 Jews were affected by this
campaign, most of whom were driven out of Budapest. In 1953,
when a more liberal policy was adopted, the situation of
the Jews underwent some improvement, and many of those who
had been expelled were permitted to return to their homes.
The 1956 uprising also had its effects
upon the Jews. As a result of the emigration of rabbis and
other Jewish leaders, organized Jewish life was disrupted.
Some 20,000 Jews are believed to have left Hungary during
this period. The report that antisemitic right-wing elements
became active during the rebellion seems to be well founded
in fact.
The period of liberalization that began
at the end of the 1950s was beneficial to the Jews, and
their communal religious and cultural life made some progress.
The regime, however, frowned upon identification with any
factor other than the socialist state, and an individual
who sought to preserve his Jewish identity and engage in
religious activities encountered difficulties in his economic
and social advancement. This situation has resulted in the
further estrangement of young Jews from their Jewish heritage.
The ties between Hungarian and world Jewry have fluctuated
over the course of the years. In the early postwar period,
the ties were very close: Hungarian Jewry was affiliated
to the World Jewish Congress and sent representatives to
international Jewish conferences. After the Communist take-over,
the contacts with world Jewry declined, but they were revived
in the 1960s, and representatives of Hungarian Jews again
took part in meetings of the World Jewish Congress and other
international Jewish conferences. Hungarian Jews also maintain
links with Jewish communities in other East European countries
and with the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, which
supports Jewish cultural and scientific institutions in
Hungary.
In 1967 the Jewish population of Hungary
was estimated at 8090,000, including some 10,000 who
did not take part in religious or communal life. The largest
and most important community was in Budapest, where all
the central Jewish institutions were located, and then numbered
6070,000 persons. About 20 synagogues existed, and
the community provided religious, welfare, and educational
services, maintaining a Jewish high school and a rabbinical
seminary. The latter was headed by the well-known scholar,
Alexander Scheiber, and was the only institution of its
kind in Eastern Europe. It also served as the center of
scientific work, especially the publication of source material
on the history of the Jews in Hungary (Monumenta Hungariae
Judaica (MHJ), vols. 611, 195968). Other
Jewish communities existed in the large provincial centersMiskolc,
Pecs, Debrecen, and Szeged.
top
Developments in the 1970's
The Jewish community in Hungary numbered
some 60,000, of whom 50,000 resided in Budapest, which was
thus the second or third largest in Eastern Europe; second
only to that of the Soviet Union, and about the same, or
slightly smaller, than that of Rumania. About 60% were above
the age of 50. Conservatism, as a tendency rather than ideology,
characterized all aspects of the life of this closed community,
and a goodly number of the Jews of Hungary belonged to the
Reform (Neolog) stream of Judaism.
The communities were organized in the Association
of Communities, a religious body recognized by the authorities,
which operated the community's institutions: the Hungarian
language publication Uj Elet (New Life),
a Rabbinical Seminary, a Jewish gymnasium, museum, orphanage,
old-age home, hospital, kosher meat shops and religious
schools. There were 15 rabbis and 30 synagogues, of which
six are in outlying cities.
The community received financial aid from
the American Joint. On Dec. 6, 1977, the centenary of the
Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest was celebrated, at which
delegations from other Eastern European communities, including
the Soviet Union, participated; as did Dr. Nahum Goldmann,
then president of the World Jewish Congress; Philip Klutznick;
and graduates of the Seminary now active in the West. Graduates
serving as rabbis in Israel were not invited.
Apart from this, the authorities continued
to maintain the strict wall of isolation, severing the community
from contact with communities in the West and in Israel.
In February 1980 an agreement was reached
between the Joint Distribution Committee and the Hungarian
government whereby the JDC would provide welfare services
for Hungarian Jews.
In April 1980 the Order of the Republic,
one of its highest awards, was bestowed by the government
on Rabbi Laszlo Salgo for his efforts in strengthening relations
between the State and the Jewish community, and in May the
government completed a memorial and permanent exhibition
at the site of Auschwitz, in memory of the 435,000 Hungarian
Jews deported to the death camp during World War II, 400,000
of whom were murdered by the Nazis. Among the exhibits are
documents detailing the history of Hungarian antisemitism
since 1919. A memorial pillar bears the names of 30,000
of the victims.
top
Relations with Israel
From the liberation to 1949, there was
substantial migration of Jews from Hungary to Israel, and
during Israel's War of Independence, the Hungarian government
supported Israel. The Communist regime, however, opposing
Zionism, prohibited large-scale emigration, and apart from
an agreement made in 1949, under which 3,000 Jews were allowed
to settle in Israel, there has been only a small trickle
of Hungarian Jews moving to Israel. Contrary to the policies
adopted by most other Communist regimes in Eastern Europe,
the Hungarian government persisted in its restrictive attitude
to aliyah. In conformity with the attitude of the
government, the official relationship of Hungarian Jewry
to Israel remained restrained. The Jewish institutions were
warned against identifying with Israel. In fact, there does
exist great interest in Israel, which is strengthened by
the many family ties. Diplomatic relations between Hungary
and Israel were established as early as 1948, and there
has been a continuous rise in trade relations. The scope
of trade reached $26,000,000. In June 1967, in the wake
of the Six-Day War, Hungary followed the Soviet Union's
lead in breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel, but
the rupture of diplomatic relations did not reflect upon
trade relations.
[Nathaniel Katzburg] top
In the 1970's The
government of Hungary instituted an internal policy which
was among the most liberal in Eastern Europe, and in this
respect, it deviated from the line dictated by Moscow. That,
however, did not apply to foreign policy, in whichand
especially with regard to the Middle East conflict, with
the exception of commercial tiesHungary was in every
respect a Soviet satellite.
Commercial ties between Israel and Hungary
continued after diplomatic ties were severed in 1967, and
in 1980 Israel exports to Hungary amounted to $2.7 million
and imports to $11.0 million.
top
The 1980's Over
the 1980s decade a revolution of sorts occurred within the
Jewish community in Hungary, with repercussions on its existence
and development. This change can be defined as mainly one
of quality but also one of quantity: there are now many
more Hungarian Jews than there were a decade or two ago,
that is, many more people of Jewish origin are now willing
to identify themselves as Jews and no longer feel or see
a need to hide their Jewishness.
The freedom which returned to Hungary with
the fall of communism in Eastern Europe also gave back to
its Jews, who had suffered greatly, a sense of being free
to be Jews, to maintain a natural link to the State of Israel,
and to try to give Jewish education to their children. At
the same time, anti Semitism reappeared, and the Jews now
faced the same choices as their brethren in the West: identification
with Zionism and possible aliyah; or accelerated
assimilation; or carefully walking the tightrope between
the two.
top
Assimilation, Zionism, Aliyah
Assimilation continued apace
among the Jews of Hungary. The recent controversy over the
problem of intermarriage showed that almost every Jewish
family in Hungary has been affected by it.
As soon as it was legally possible, a Zionist
Federation was founded in Hungary, led by psychologist Dr.
Tibor (Samuel) Englander, but it has little influence and
only a tiny fraction of Hungarian Jews are active in it.
In 1992 no more than 100 Jews emigrated to Israel.
An impartial observer receives the impression
that he is seeing vibrant Jewish life. Dozens of organizationsB'nai
B'rith, WIZO, Na'amat, the Jewish Culture Organization,
Zionist youth movements from Bnei Akiva to Ha-Shomer ha-Za'ir,
Habad, and so oncarry on feverish activity which touches
only a small part of the Jewish population. The Jewish Agency
has an office in Budapest, but there is no emissary for
educational affairs and after the Russian immigrants to
Israel stopped using the transit center in Hungary, the
Agency's role and importance diminished. The World Jewish
Congress, one of the first organizations to set up a representation
in Hungary after the change of regime in 1990, was about
to close its office and transfer it to Moscow.
top
Antisemitism Paradoxically,
Jews seem to have been goaded into "Jewish life"
by the antisemitism which reasserted itself under the new
rule. Although it is still illegal, the police in a liberal
regime are unableand the government apparently does
not careto enforce this law. The result has been a
great spurt in antisemitic journalism and hateful antisemitic
remarks by a few of the elected representatives of the Democratic
Forum (M.D.F.), the ruling party. The most prominent of
the antisemitic papers are the Magyar Forum, under
the editorship of the author Istvan Csurka, and Szent
Korona ("The Holy Crown"), edited by Laszlo
Romhany. Romhany has been convicted of incitement to murder.
In 1992 and early 1993 there were many incidents of attacks
on foreign students as well as against gypsies and Jews
by young persons called "nationalists," who identify
themselves with the skinheads, and in the Hungarian Parliament
they have a patron in the person of Isabella B. Kiraly (M.D.F.).
At a large demonstration in front of the Parliament in October
1992, groups of young people showed up in Nazi uniforms
and the writer Csurka accused the president of Hungary,
the liberal Arpad Gonz of having "the agents who pull
the strings in New York, Paris, and Tel Aviv, guide his
path in Hungarian politics," which according to Csurka
are still ruled by the Jews as are the communications media.
In spring 1993 antisemitic feelings were
aroused by an interview given by the head of the Jewish
community, Gusztav Zoltai, and the chief rabbi of Budapest,
Georg Landesman, to a Catholic weekly. The rabbi made a
few lame statements which were seen as contemptuous of Hungarian
culture. The rabbi apologized, but his opponents in the
community used the ensuing storm of public opinion to call
for his resignation. The Hungarian prime minister, Jozef
Antal, addressed himselfin an unprecedented stepnot
to the board of the Jewish community, but to the Israel
ambassador in Budapest, David Kraus, and demanded the dismissal
of the rabbi, whose remarks were, as stated in Antal's letter,
"false, shocking, detrimental to the Hungarian people,
and likely to cause an outbreak of antisemitism." The
ambassador rejected the letter's contents, but the Hungarian
minister of the interior ordered that an investigation be
opened to see whether there is any basis for accusing the
rabbi of "causing hatred of Jews." After Rabbi
Landesman apologized, but refused to resign, the community
board canceled the position of chief rabbi and its duties
were divided among the other rabbis. Landesman did stay
on as the rabbi of the Great Synagogue on Dohany Street.
top
Jewish Education
At the close of 1992 three Jewish schools
were in operation with a total of 1,000 pupils, less than
one percent of the Hungarian Jewish population, estimated
at 100,000. There was also a kindergarten, founded in 1992,
from which, according to the plan, another elementary school
will develop and which will be operated by the Jewish community.
At present the schools are: Moreshet Avot,
founded by the Canadian Reichmann family. It has 12 grades
(some with two classes) and some 500 pupils. A special rabbi
brought from Israel, Rabbi Jacob Zinger of Givat Shemuel,
is responsible for seeing that only Jewish pupils are accepted
by the school. The school has 55 teachers, 10 from Israel,
who are changed yearly. The salary of the principal, Avi
Teitelbaum, is paid for by the Jewish Agency. The school
maintains a moderate religious atmosphere and promises the
pupils "international" matriculation in English.
Yavneh School (founded by the Lauder Foundation)
defines itself as a "secular Jewish school," and
is open, by declaration, to non-Jews (indeed over half of
its pupils are not Jewish). The school is overcrowded and
only one of every three applicants is accepted. In spirit
Yavneh is akin to the Jewish Culture Organization, and in
its three years of existence has had four principals.
The Anne Frank Gymnasium is the oldest
of today's three Hungarian Jewish schools. It was the only
Jewish school not closed by the Communist regime, although
it was severely limited by it, so much so that by the end
of the 1970s only 15 pupils were enrolled in its four classes.
Currently there are 200 pupils (only Jews are accepted);
the principal, Rozsa T. Berendt, and most of the teachers
are Jewish. Organizationally the school belongs to the Jewish
community. Hebrew instruction is given by a teacher from
Israel.
Study groups are conducted by the Lubavich
movement and its emissary, Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, as well
as by the Jewish Culture Organization, which also published
a bi-monthly journal, Szombat ("Sabbath").
The famous Budapest Rabbinical Seminary, founded nearly
120 years ago, recently ceased functioning in that capacityfrom
lack of interest and pupilsand is now a teachers'
training college preparing a group of young people for teaching
in the Jewish schools. In 1986, a centennial volume on the
seminary, edited by Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger, was published
in New York.
top
Organizational Structure
At the head of organized Hungarian Jewry
stands Mazsihisz, the federation of Jewish communities,
which unites the organized Jewish communities, the largest
and most important of which is the capital Budapest, with
the greatest concentration of Jews; others exist in Debrecen,
Miskolc, Szeged, and elsewhere. The majority of Jews in
Hungary do not belong to any organized community or to any
Jewish organization. The leaders of the federation are its
president, the lawyer Peter Feldmayer, and the acting chairman,
Gustav Zoltai. After a 50-year break, during which the Jewish
leaders were appointed by the Communist regime, elections
were held in 1990 and since then an elected directorate
has been in operation. Among all Jewish organizations listed
above, the largest and strongest is the culture organization,
Mazsike, and even its membership does not exceed a few hundred.
The community publishes a biweekly called Uj Elet ("New
Life").
top
Rabbis and Spiritual Leadership
There were some 12 rabbis in
Hungary, at the start of the 1990s, all belonging to the
Neolog stream. For the few dozen Orthodox Jews, the rabbi
is Rabbi Jacob Zinger of the Reichmann school. The elected
chief rabbi is Georg (Joshua) Landesman and the director
of the former rabbinical seminary is Rabbi Josef Schweitzer.
In the different regions of Budapest, congregational rabbis
are: Rabbi Tamas Lovy; Rabbi Tamas Raj (also a member of
Parliament for the Free Democrats party); Rabbi Judah (Robert)
Deutsch, director of the Budapest rabbinate office; Rabbi
Dr. Oedon Zinger, rabbi of Buda; Rabbi Istvan Doman; Rabbi
Peter Kardos, editor of the community biweekly; Rabbi Istevan
Berger, rabbi of the city of Pecs; Rabbi Arpad Vertes, rabbi
of Gyor; and Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, the Lubavich emissary,
who has his own synagogue in Budapest and who publishes
his own organ, Egyseg ("Unity"). A ritual
bath operates in Budapest and the rabbinical council recently
published an open letter stressing the importance of observing
the laws of family purity.
top
Hungary-Israel Relations
These relations, established and developed
by Shlomo Marom, the first Israel ambassador to Hungary
after the resumption of diplomatic relations, are satisfactory
and have continued to improve during the term of the current
ambassador, David Kraus. On Hungary's part, from 1990 through
1992, visitors to Israel have included President Arpad Gonz,
Prime Minister Jozef Antall, and Foreign Minister Geza Jeszensky.
Israel President Herzog visited Budapest (amid rumors that
Arabs tried to assassinate him while there). Hungary was
of great assistance to Israel in the transit of immigrants
from the Soviet Union to Israel when they passed through
the Budapest transit center. In 1992 terrorists attacked
a busload of Soviet Jewish immigrants; although they were
not hurt, two Hungarian policemen were injured. Mutual tourism
is growing as are relations between cities and increased
cooperation at international forumsall of which are
characteristic of the relations between the two countries
since the resumption of diplomatic relations.
[Naftali Kraus] |