History of the Jews in Hungary

History of the Jews in Hungary concerns the Jews of Hungary and of Hungarian origins.

Earliest references through 1095

It is not definitely known when Jews first settled in Hungary. According to legend, King Decebalus of Dacia permitted the Jews who aided him in his war against Rome to settle in his territory. A Latin inscription, the epitaph of Septima Maria, discovered within the territory of the ancient province of Pannonia, clearly refers to Jewish matters. But, although it may be unhesitatingly assumed that Jews came to Hungary while the Roman emperors held sway in that country, there is nothing to indicate that at that time they had settled there permanently. In the Hungarian language, the word Jew is zsidó, a term which the Hungarians adopted from the Slavs.

The first historical document relating to the Jews of Hungary is the letter written about 960 to King Joseph of the Khazars by Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the Jewish statesman of Córdoba, in which he says that the Slavic ambassadors promised to deliver the message to the King of Slavonia, who would hand the same to Jews living in "the country of Hungarin," who, in turn, would transmit it farther. About the same time Ibrahim ibn Jacob says that Jews went from Hungary to Prague for business purposes. Dr. Samuel Kohn suggests that Jewish Khazars may have been among the Hungarian troops that under Árpád conquered the country in the second half of the ninth century. Nothing is known concerning the Jews during the period of the Vajdas, except that they lived in the country and engaged in commerce there. Two hundred years later, in the reign of St. Ladislaus (1077-1095), the Synod of Szabolcs decreed (May 20, 1092) that Jews should not be permitted to have Christian wives or to keep Christian slaves. This decree had been promulgated in the Christian countries of Europe since the fifth century, and St. Ladislaus merely introduced it into Hungary.

The Jews of Hungary formed at first small settlements, and had no learned rabbis; but they were strictly observant of all the Jewish religious laws and customs. Jews from Ratisbon once came into Hungary with merchandise from Russia, and the wheel of their wagon broke on a Friday, near Buda (Ofen) or Esztergom (Gran). By the time they had repaired it and had entered the town, the Jews were just leaving the synagogue; and the unintentional Sabbath-breakers were heavily fined. The ritual of the Hungarian Jews faithfully reflected their German origin.

Early history (1100-1300)

King Coloman (1095-1114), the successor of St. Ladislaus, renewed the Szabolcs decree of 1092, adding further prohibitions against the employment of Christian slaves and domestics. He also restricted the Jews to cities with episcopal sees - probably to have them under the continuous supervision of the Church. Soon after the promulgation of this decree, Crusaders came to Hungary; but the Hungarians did not sympathize with them, and Coloman even opposed them. The infuriated Crusaders attacked some cities, and if Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya is to be believed, the Jews suffered a fate similar to that of their coreligionists in France, Germany, and Bohemia.

The cruelties inflicted upon the Jews of Bohemia induced many of them to seek refuge with their treasures in Hungary. It was probably the immigration of the rich Bohemian Jews that induced Coloman soon afterward to regulate commercial and banking transactions between Jews and Christians. He decreed, among other regulations, that if a Christian borrowed from a Jew, or a Jew from a Christian, both Christian and Jewish witnesses must be present at the transaction.

During the reign of King Andrew II (1205-1235) there were Jewish chamberlains and mint-, salt-, and tax-officials. The nobles of the country, however, induced the king, in his Golden Bull (1222), to deprive the Jews of these high offices. When Andrew needed money in 1226, he farmed the royal revenues to Jews, which gave ground for much complaint. The pope (Pope Honorius III) thereupon excommunicated him, until, in 1233, he promised the papal ambassadors on oath that he would enforce the decrees of the Golden Bull directed against the Jews and the Saracens(by this time, the papacy had changed, and the Pope was now Pope Gregory IX); would cause both peoples to be distinguished from Christians by means of badges; and would forbid both Jews and Saracens to buy or to keep Christian slaves.

The year 1240 was the closing one of the fifth millennium of the Jewish era. At that time the Jews were expecting the advent of their Messiah. The Mongol invasion in 1241 seemed to conform to expectation, as Jewish imagination expected the happy Messianic period to be ushered in by the war of Gog and Magog. The Mongols treated the Jews with great cruelty, although it had been reported that they (the Mongols) were in reality Jews who had been secretly furnished with arms by their European brethren. Béla IV (1235-1270) appointed a Jew, Henul by name, court chamberlain (the Jew Teka had filled this office under Andrew II); and Wölfel and his sons Altmann and Nickel held the castle at Komárom with its domains in pawn. Béla also entrusted the Jews with the mint; and Hebrew coins of this period are still found in Hungary. In 1251 a privilegium was granted by Béla to his Jewish subjects which was essentially the same as that granted by Duke Frederick II the Quarrelsome to the Austrian Jews in 1244, but which Béla modified to suit the conditions of Hungary. This privilegium remained in force down to the Battle of Mohács (1526).

At the Synod of Buda (1279), held in the reign of King Ladislaus IV (1272-1290), it was decreed, in the presence of the papal ambassador, that every Jew appearing in public should wear on the left side of his upper garment a piece of red cloth; that any Christian transacting business with a Jew not so marked, or living in a house or on land together with any Jew, should be refused admittance to the Church services; and that a Christian entrusting any office to a Jew should be excommunicated. Andrew III (1291-1301), the last king of the Árpád dynasty, declared, in the privilegium granted by him to the community of Pozsony (Pressburg; now Bratislava), that the Jews in that city should enjoy all the liberties of citizens.

Expulsion, recall, and persecution (1349-1526)

Under the foreign kings who occupied the throne of Hungary on the extinction of the house of Arpad, the Hungarian Jews suffered many persecutions; and at the time of the Black Death (1349) they were expelled from the country. Although the Jews were immediately readmitted, they were again persecuted, and were once more expelled in 1360 by King Louis the Great of Anjou (1342-1382) on the failure of his attempt to convert them to Catholicism. They were graciously received by Alexander the Good of Moldavia and Dano I of Wallachia, the latter affording them special commercial privileges.

When, some years later, Hungary was in financial distress, the Jews were recalled. They found that during their absence the king had introduced the custom of Tödtbriefe, i.e., canceling by a stroke of his pen, on the request of a subject or a city, the notes and mortgage-deeds of the Jews. An important office created by Louis was that of "judge of all the Jews living in Hungary," this official being chosen from among the dignitaries of the country, the palatines, and treasurers, and having a deputy to aid him. It was his duty to collect the taxes of the Jews, to protect their privileges, and to listen to their complaints, which last-named had become more frequent since the reign of Sigismund Luxembourg (1387-1437).

The successors of Sigismund: Albert (1437-1439), Ladislaus Posthumus (1453-1457), and Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490)—-likewise confirmed the privilegium of Béla IV. Matthias created the office of Jewish prefect in Hungary. The period following the death of Matthias was a sad one for the Hungarian Jews. He was hardly buried, when the people fell upon them, confiscated their property, refused to pay debts owing to them, and persecuted them generally. The pretender John Corvinus, Matthias' illegitimate son, expelled them from Tata, and King Ladislaus II (1490-1516), always in need of money, laid heavy taxes upon them. During his reign, Jews were for the first time burned at the stake, many being executed at Nagyszombat (Tyrnau; now Trnava) in 1494, on suspicion of ritual murder.

The Hungarian Jews finally applied to the German Emperor Maximilian for protection. On the occasion of the marriage of Louis II and the archduchess Maria (1512), the emperor, with the consent of Ladislaus, took the prefect, Jacob Mendel, together with his family and all the other Hungarian Jews, under his protection, according to them all the rights enjoyed by his other subjects. Under Ladislaus' successor, Louis II (1516-1526), persecution of the Jews was a common occurrence. The bitter feeling against them was in part augmented by the fact that the baptized Emerich Szerencsés, the deputy treasurer, embezzled the public funds, following the example of the nobles who despoiled the treasury under the weak Louis.

During the war with the Ottomans (1526-cca. 1700)

See also: History of the Jews in Turkey

The Turks vanquished the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohács (August 29, 1526), on which occasion Louis II was slain. When the news of his death reached the capital, Buda, the court and the nobles fled together with some rich Jews, among them the prefect. When the grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, preceding Sultan Suleiman, arrived with his army at Buda, the representatives of the Jews who had remained in the city appeared garbed in mourning before him, and, begging for grace, handed him the keys of the deserted and unprotected castle in token of submission. The sultan himself entered Buda on September 11; and on September 22 he decreed that all the Jews seized at Buda, Esztergom, and elsewhere, more than 2,000 in number, should be distributed among the cities of the Turkish empire.

While some of the Jews of Hungary were thus deported to Turkey, others, who had fled at the approach of the sultan, sought refuge beyond the frontier or in the royal free royal towns of western Hungary. The widow of Louis II, the queen regent Maria, favored the enemies of the Jews. The citizens of Sopron (Ödenburg) began hostilities by expelling the Jews of that city, confiscating their property, and pillaging the vacated houses and the synagogue. The city of Pozsony also received permission from the queen (October 9, 1526) to expel the Jews living within its territory, because they had expressed their intention of fleeing before the Turks. The Jews left Pozsony on November 9. On the same day the diet at Székesfehérvár was opened, at which John Zápolya (1526-1540) was elected and crowned king in opposition to Ferdinand. During this session it was decreed that the Jews should immediately be expelled from every part of the country. Zápolya, however, did not ratify these laws; and the Diet held at Pozsony in December 1526, at which Ferdinand of Habsburg was chosen king (1526-1564), annulled all the decrees of that of Székesfehérvár, including Zápolya's election as king.

As the lord of Bösing (Bazin) was in debt to the Jews, a blood accusation was brought against these inconvenient creditors in 1529. Although Mendel, the prefect, and the Jews throughout Hungary protested, the accused were burned at the stake. For centuries afterward Jews were forbidden to live at Bösing. The Jews of Nagyszombat soon shared a similar fate, being first punished for alleged ritual murder and then expelled from the city (February 19, 1539).

In 1541, on the anniversary of the battle of Mohács, Sultan Sulaiman again took Buda by a ruse. This event marks the beginning of Turkish rule in many parts of Hungary, which lasted down to the end of the 17th century. The Jews living in these parts were treated far better than those living under the Habsburgs. During this period, beginning with the second half of the sixteenth century, the community of Ofen flourished more than at any time before or after. While the Turks held sway in Hungary, the Jews of Transylvania (at that time an independent principality) also fared well. At the instance of Abraham Sassa, a Jewish physician of Constantinople, Prince Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania granted a letter of privileges (June 18, 1623) to the Spanish Jews from Turkey.

On November 26, 1572, King Maximilian II (1563-1576) intended to expel the Jews of Pozsony, stating that his edict would be recalled only in case they accepted Christianity. The Jews, however, remained in the city, without abandoning their religion. They were in constant conflict with the citizens. On June 1, 1582 the municipal council decreed that no one should harbor Jews, or even transact business with them. The feeling against the Jews in that part of the country not under Turkish rule is shown by the decree of the Diet of 1578, to the effect that Jews were to be taxed double the amount which was imposed upon other citizens. By article XV of the law promulgated by the Diet of 1630, Jews were forbidden to take charge of the customs; and this decree was confirmed by the Diet of 1646 on the ground that the Jews were excluded from the privileges of the country, that they were unbelievers, and had no conscience (veluti jurium regni incapaces, infideles, et nulla conscientia praediti). The Jews had to pay a special war-tax when the imperial troops set out toward the end of the sixteenth century to recapture Buda from the Turks. The Buda community suffered much during this siege, as did also that of Székesfehérvár when the imperial troops took that city in September 1601; many of its members were either slain or taken prisoner and sold into slavery, their redemption being subsequently effected by the German, Italian, and Turkish Jews. After the conclusion of peace, which the Jews helped to bring about, the communities were in part reconstructed; but further development in the territory of the Habsburgs was arrested when Leopold I (1657-1705) expelled the Jews (April 24, 1671). He, however, revoked his decree a few months later (August 20). During the siege of Vienna, in 1683, the Jews that had returned to that city were again maltreated. The Turks plundered some communities in western Hungary, and deported the members as slaves.

Habsburg rule

Further persecution and expulsions (1686-1740)

The imperial troops recaptured Buda on September 2, 1686; and in the following years the whole of Hungary now came under the rule of the House of Habsburg. After the troops of Leopold had driven out the Turks, the king would not suffer any but Catholics in the reconquered counties; and Protestants, Jews, and Muslims renounced their faiths. As the devastated country had to be repopulated, Bishop Count Leopold Kollonitsch, subsequently Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary, advised the king to give the preference to the German Catholics in order that the country might in time become German and Catholic. He held that the Jews could not be exterminated at once, but they must be weeded out by degrees, as bad coin is gradually withdrawn from circulation. The decree passed by the Diet of Pozsony, imposing double taxation upon the Jews, must be enforced. Jews must not be permitted to engage in agriculture, nor to own any real estate, nor to keep Christian servants.

This advice soon bore fruit and was in part acted upon. In August 1690, the government at Vienna ordered Sopron to expel its Jews, who had immigrated from the Austrian provinces. The government, desiring to enforce the edict of the last Diet, decreed soon afterward that Jews should be removed from the office of collector. The order proved ineffective, however; and the employment of Jewish customs officials was continued. Even the treasurer of the realm set the example in transgressing the law by appointing (1692) Simon Hirsch as farmer of customs at Leopoldstadt; and at Hirsch's death he transferred the office to Hirsch's son-in-law.

The revolt of the Kuruc, under Francis II Rákóczi, caused much suffering to the Hungarian Jews. The Kuruc imprisoned and slew the Jews, who had incurred their anger by siding with the king's party. The Jews of Eisenstadt (Kismarton), accompanied by those of the community of Mattersdorf (Nagymarton), sought refuge at Vienna, Wiener-Neustadt, and Forchtenstein (Fraknó); those of Holics (Holíč) and Sasvár (Schlossberg; now Šaštín) dispersed to Göding (Hodonín); while others, who could not leave their business in this time of distress, sent their families to safe places, and themselves braved the danger. While not many Jews lost their lives during this revolt, it made great havoc in their wealth, especially in the county of Sopron, where a number of rich Jews were living. The king granted letters of protection to those that had been ruined by the revolt, and demanded satisfaction for those that had been injured; but in return for these favors he commanded the Jews to furnish the sums necessary for suppressing the revolt.

After the restoration of peace the Jews were expelled from many cities that feared their competition; thus Esztergom expelled them in 1712, on the ground that the city which had given birth to St. Stephen must not be desecrated by them. But the Jews living in the country, on the estates of their landlords, were generally left alone.

The lot of the Jews was not improved under the reign of Leopold's son, Charles III (1711-1740). He informed the government (June 28, 1725) that he intended to decrease the number of Jews in his domains, and the government thereupon directed the counties to furnish statistics of the Hebrew inhabitants. In 1726 the king decreed that in the Austrian provinces, from the day of publication of the decree, only one male member in each Jewish family be allowed to marry. This decree, restricting the natural increase of the Jews, materially affected the Jewish communities of Hungary. All the Jews in the Austrian provinces who could not marry there went to Hungary to found families; thus the overflow of Austrian Jews peopled Hungary. These immigrants settled chiefly in the northwestern counties, in Nyitra, Pozsony, and Trencsén (Trenčín).

The Moravian Jews continued to live in Hungary as Moravian subjects; even those that went there for the purpose of marrying and settling promised on oath before leaving that they would pay the same taxes as those living in Moravia. In 1734 the Jews of Trencsén bound themselves by a secret oath that in all their communal affairs they would submit to the Jewish court at Ungarisch-Brod only. In the course of time the immigrants refused to pay taxes to the Austrian provinces. The Moravian Jews, who had suffered by the heavy emigration, then brought complaint; and Maria Theresa ordered that all Jewish and Christian subjects that had emigrated after 1740 should be extradited, while those who had emigrated before that date were to be released from their Moravian allegiance.

The government could not, however, check the large immigration; for although strict laws were drafted in 1727, they could not be enforced owing to the good-will of the magnates toward the Jews. The counties either did not answer at all, or sent reports bespeaking mercy rather than persecution.

Meanwhile the king endeavored to free the mining-towns from the Jews — a work which Leopold I had already begun in 1693. The Jews, however, continued to settle near these towns; they displayed their wares at the fairs; and, with the permission of the court, they even erected a foundry at Ság (Sasinkovo). When King Charles ordered them to leave (March, 1727), the royal mandate was in some places ignored; in others the Jews obeyed so slowly that he had to repeat his edict three months later.

Population in 1735

In 1735 another census of the Jews of the country was taken with the view of reducing their numbers. There were at that time 11,621 Jews living in Hungary, of which 2,474 were male heads of families, and fifty-seven were female heads. Of these heads of families 35.31 per cent declared themselves to be Hungarians; the rest had immigrated. Of the immigrants 38.35 per cent came from Moravia, 11.05 per cent from Poland, and 3.07 per cent from Bohemia. The largest Jewish community, numbering 770 persons, was that of Pozsony. Most of the Jews were engaged in commerce or industries; only a few pursued agriculture.

Under Maria Theresa (1740-1780)

During the reign of Queen Maria Theresa (1740-1780), daughter of Charles III, the Jews were expelled from Buda (1746), and the "toleration-tax" was imposed upon the Hungarian Jews. On September 1, 1749, the delegates of the Hungarian Jews, except those from the county of Szatmár, assembled at Pozsony and met a royal commission, which informed them that they would be expelled from the country if they did not pay this tax. The frightened Jews at once agreed to do so; and the commission then demanded a yearly tax of 50,000 gulden. This sum being excessive, the delegates protested; and although the queen had fixed 30,000 gulden as the minimum tax, they were finally able to compromise on the payment of 20,000 gulden a year for a period of eight years. The delegates were to apportion this amount among the districts; the districts, their respective sums among the communities; and the communities, theirs among the individual members.

The queen confirmed this agreement of the commission, except the eight-year clause, changing the period to three years, which she subsequently made five. The agreement, thus ratified by the queen, was brought on November 26 before the courts, which were powerless to relieve the Jews from the payment of this Malkegeld (queen's money), as they called it.

The Jews, thus burdened by new taxes, thought the time ripe for taking steps to remove their oppressive disabilities. While still at Presburg the delegates had brought their grievances before the mixed commission that was called delegata in puncto tolerantialis taxae et gravaminum Judeorum commissio mixta. These complaints pictured the distress of the Jews of that time. They were not allowed to live in Croatia and Slavonia, in the counties of Baranya and Heves, or in several free towns and localities; nor might they visit the markets there. At Stuhlweissenburg they had to pay a poll-tax of 1 gulden, 30 kreuzer if they entered the city during the day, if only for an hour. In many places they might not even stay overnight. They therefore begged permission to settle, or at least to visit the fairs, in Croatia and Slavonia and in those places from which they had been driven in consequence of the jealousy of the Greeks and the merchants. They had also to pay heavier bridge-and ferry-tolls than the Christians; at Nagyszombat they had to pay three times the ordinary sum, namely, for the driver, for the vehicle, and for the animal drawing the same; and in three villages belonging to the same district they had to pay toll, although there was no toll-gate. Jews living on the estates of the nobles had to give their wives and children as pledges for arrears of taxes. In Upper Hungary they asked for the revocation of the toleration-tax imposed by the chamber of Zips (Szepes), on the ground that otherwise the Jews living there would have to pay two such taxes; and they asked also to be relieved from a similar tax paid to the Diet. Finally, they requested that Jewish artisans might be allowed to follow their trades in their homes undisturbed.

The commission laid these complaints before the queen, indicating the manner in which the evils could be relieved; and their suggestions were dictated in a rare spirit of good-will.

The queen relieved the Jews from the tax of toleration in Upper Hungary only. In regard to the other complaints she ordered that the Jews should specify them in detail, and that the government should remedy them in so far as they came under its jurisdiction.

The toleration-tax had hardly been instituted when Michael Hirsch petitioned the government to be appointed primate of the Hungarian Jews in order to be able to settle difficulties that might arise among them, and to collect the tax. The government did not recommend Hirsch, but decided that in case the Jews should refuse to pay, it might be advisable to appoint a primate to adjust the matter.

Before the end of the period of five years the delegates of the Jews again met the commission at Presburg and offered to increase the amount of their tax to 25,000 gulden a year if the queen would promise that it should remain at that sum for the next ten years. The queen refused; and not only did she turn a deaf ear to the renewed gravamina of the Jews, but caused still heavier burdens to be imposed upon them. Their tax of 20,000 gulden was increased to 30,000 gulden in 1760; to 50,000 in 1772; to 80,000 in 1778; and to 160,000 in 1813.

Under Joseph II (1780-1790)

Joseph II (1780-1790), son and successor of Maria Theresa, showed immediately on his accession that he intended to alleviate the condition of the Jews, communicating this intention to the Hungarian chancellor, Count Franz Esterházy, as early as May 13, 1781. In consequence the Hungarian government issued (March 31, 1783) a decree known as the Systematica gentis Judaicae regulatio, which wiped out at one stroke the decrees that had oppressed the Jews for centuries. The royal free towns, except the mining-towns, were opened to the Jews, who were allowed to settle at pleasure throughout the country. The regulatio decreed that the legal documents of the Jews should no longer be composed in Hebrew, or in the corrupt Judaeo-German, but in Latin, German, and Hungarian, the languages currently used in the country, and which the young Jews were required to learn within two years. Documents written in Hebrew or in Judaeo-German were not legal; Hebrew books were to be used at worship only; the Jews were to organize elementary schools; the commands of the emperor, issued in the interests of the Jews, were to be announced in the synagogues; and the rabbis were to explain to the people the salutary effects of these decrees. The subjects to be taught in the Jewish schools were to be the same as those taught in the national schools; the same text-books were to be used in all the elementary schools; and everything that might offend the religious sentiment of non-conformists was to be omitted.

During the early years Christian teachers were to be employed in the Jewish schools, but they were to have nothing to do with the religious affairs of such institutions. After the lapse of ten years a Jew might establish a business, or engage in trade, only if he could prove that he had attended a school. The usual school-inspectors were to supervise the Jewish schools and to report to the government. The Jews were to create a fund for organizing and maintaining their schools. Jewish youth might enter the academies, and might study any subject at the universities except theology. Jews might rent farms only if they could cultivate the same without the aid of Christians. They were allowed to peddle and to engage in various industrial occupations, and to be admitted into the guilds. They were also permitted to engrave seals, and to sell gunpowder and saltpeter; but their exclusion from the mining-towns remained in force. Christian masters were allowed to have Jewish apprentices. All distinctive marks hitherto worn by the Jews were to be abolished, and they might even carry swords. On the other hand, they were required to discard the distinctive marks prescribed by their religion and to shave their beards. Emperor Joseph regarded this decree so seriously that he allowed no one to violate it. The Jews, in a petition dated April 22, 1783, expressed their gratitude to the emperor for his favors, and, reminding him of his principle that religion should not be interfered with, asked permission to wear beards. The emperor granted the prayer of the petitioners, but reaffirmed the other parts of the decree (April 24, 1783). The Jews organized schools in various places, at Pozsony, Óbuda, Vágújhely (Nové Mesto nad Váhom), and Nagyvárad(Oradea). A decree was issued by the emperor (July 23, 1787) to the effect that every Jew should choose a German surname; and a further edict (1789) ordered, to the consternation of the Jews, that they should henceforth perform military service.

After the death of Joseph II the royal free cities showed a very hostile attitude toward the Jews. The citizens of Pest petitioned the municipal council that after May 1, 1790, the Jews should no longer be allowed to live in the city. The government interfered; and the Jews were merely forbidden to engage in peddling in the city. Seven days previously a decree of expulsion had been issued at Nagyszombat, May 1 being fixed as the date of the Jews' departure. The Jews appealed to the government; and in the following December the city authorities of Nagyszombat were informed that the Diet had confirmed the former rights of the Jews, and that the latter could not be expelled.

Toleration and Repression (1790-1847)

The Jews of Hungary handed a petition, in which they boldly presented their claims to equality with other citizens, to King Leopold II (1790-1792) at Vienna on November 29, 1790. He sent it the following day to the chancelleries of Hungary and Moravia for their opinions. The question was brought before the estates of the country on December 2, and the Diet drafted a bill showing that it intended to protect the Jews. This decision created consternation among the enemies of the latter. Tyrnau addressed a further memorandum to the estates (December 4) in which it demanded that the Diet should protect the city's privileges. The Diet decided in favor of the Jews, and its decision was laid before the king.

The Jews, confidently anticipating the king's decision in their favor, organized a splendid celebration on November 15, 1790, the day of his coronation; on January 10, 1791, the king approved the bill of the Diet; and the following law, drafted in conformity with the royal decision, was read by Judge Stephen Atzel in the session of February 5:

"In order that the condition of the Jews may be regulated pending such time as may elapse until their affairs and the privileges of various royal free towns relating to them shall have been determined by a commission to report to the next ensuing Diet, when his Majesty and the estates will decide on the condition of the Jews, the estates have determined, with the approval of his Majesty, that the Jews within the boundaries of Hungary and the countries belonging to it shall, in all the royal free cities and in other localities (except the royal mining-towns), remain under the same conditions in which they were on Jan. 1, 1790; and in case they have been expelled anywhere, they shall be recalled."

Thus came into force the famous law entitled De Judaeis, which forms the thirty-eighth article of the laws of the Diet of 1790-1791. The De Judaeis law was gratefully received by the Jews; for it not only afforded them protection, but also gave them the assurance that their affairs would soon be regulated. Still, although the Diet appointed on February 7, 1791, a commission to study the question, the amelioration of the condition of the Hungarian Jews was not effected till half a century later, under Ferdinand V (1835-1848), during the session of the Diet of 1839-1840.

In consequence of the petition of the Jews of Pest, the mover of which was Dr. Philip Jacobovics, superintendent of the Jewish hospital, the general assembly of the county of Pest drafted instructions for the delegates on June 10, 1839, to the effect that if the Jews would be willing to adopt the Magyar language they should be given equal rights with other Hungarian citizens. From now on much attention was paid to the teaching of Hungarian in the schools; Moritz Bloch (Ballagi) translated the Pentateuch into Hungarian, and Moritz Rosenthal the Psalms and the Pirkei Avoth. Various communities founded Hungarian reading-circles; and the Hungarian dress and language were more and more adopted. Many communities began to use Hungarian on their seals and in their documents, and some liberal rabbis even began to preach in that language.

At the sessions of the Diet subsequent to that of 1839-1840, as well as in various cities, a decided antipathy—at times active and at times merely passive—toward the Jews became manifest. In sharp contrast to this attitude was that of Baron József Eötvös, who published in 1840 in the Budapesti Szemle, the most prominent Hungarian review, a strong appeal for the emancipation of the Jews. This cause also found a friend in Count Charles Zay, the chief ecclesiastical inspector of the Hungarian Lutherans, who warmly advocated Jewish interests in 1846.

Although the session of the Diet convened on November 7, 1847, was unfavorable to the Jews, the latter not only continued to cultivate the Hungarian language, but were also willing to sacrifice their lives and property in the hour of danger. During the Revolution of 1848 they displayed their patriotism, even though attacked by the populace in several places at the beginning of the uprising. On March 19 the populace of Pozsony, encouraged by the antipathies of the citizens—who were aroused by the fact that the Jews, leaving their ghetto around the castle of Pozsony, were settling in the city itself—began hostilities that were continued after some days, and were renewed more fiercely in April. At this time the expulsion of the Jews from Sopron, Pécs, Székesfehérvár, and Szombathely was demanded; in the last two cities there were pogroms. At Szombathely, the mob advanced upon the synagogue, cut up the Torah scrolls, and threw them into a well. Nor did the Jews of Pest escape, while those at Vágújhely especially suffered from the brutality of the mob. Bitter words against the Jews were also heard in the Diet. Some Jews advised emigration to America as a means of escape; and a society was founded at Pest, with a branch at Pozsony, for that purpose. A few left Hungary, seeking a new home across the sea, but the majority remained.

Revolution and Emancipation, 1848-1849

Jews and the Hungarian Revolution

Jews entered the national guard as early as March of 1848; although they were excluded from certain cities, they reentered as soon as the danger to the country seemed greater than the hatred of the citizens. At Pest the Jewish national guard formed a separate division. When the national guards of Pápa were mobilized against the Croatians, Leopold Löw, rabbi of Pápa, joined the Hungarian ranks, inspiring his companions by his words of encouragement. Jews were also to be found in the volunteer corps, and among the honvéd and landsturm; and they constituted one-third of the volunteer division of Pest that marched along the Drava against the Croatians, being blessed by Rabbi Schwab on June 22, 1848. Many Jews throughout the country joined the army to fight for their fatherland; among them, Adolf Hübsch, subsequently rabbi at New York; Schiller-Szinessy, afterward lecturer at the University of Cambridge; and Ignatz Einhorn, who, under the name of "Eduard Horn," subsequently became state secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Commerce. The rebellious Serbians slew the Jews at Zenta who sympathized with Hungary; among them, Rabbi Israel Ullmann and Jacob Münz, son of Moses Münz of Óbuda The conduct of the Jewish soldiers in the Hungarian army was highly commended by Generals Klapka and Görgey. Einhorn estimated the number of Jewish soldiers who took part in the Hungarian Revolution to be 20,000; but this is most likely exaggerated, as Béla Bernstein enumerates only 755 combatants by name in his work, Az 1848-49-iki Magyar Szabadságharcz és a Zsidók (Budapest, 1898).

The Hungarian Jews served their country not only with the sword, but also with funds. Communities and individuals, ḥebra ḳaddishas and other Jewish societies, freely contributed silver and gold, armor and provisions, clothed and fed the soldiers, and furnished lint and other medical supplies to the Hungarian camps. Meanwhile they did not forget to take steps to obtain their rights as citizens. When the Diet of 1847-1848 (in which, according to ancient law, only the nobles and those having the rights of nobles might take part) was dissolved (April 11), and the new Parliament — at which under the new laws the delegates elected by the commons also appeared — was convened at Pest (July 2, 1848), the Jews hopefully looked forward to the deliberations of the new body.

Brief Emancipation and Aftermath, 1849

Many Jews thought to pave the way for emancipation by a radical reform of their religious life, in agreement with opinions uttered in the Diets and in the press, that the Jews should not receive equal civic rights until they had reformed their religion. This reform had been first demanded in the session of 1839-1840. From this session onward the necessity of a reform of the Jewish religion was generally advocated in the press and in general assemblies, mostly in a spirit of friendliness. Several counties instructed their representatives not to vote for the emancipation of the Jews until they desisted from practising the externals of their religion.

For the purpose of urging emancipation all the Jews of Hungary sent delegates to a conference at Pest on July 5, 1848; there a commission consisting of ten members was chosen, to which was entrusted the task of agitating on behalf of emancipation; but the commission was instructed to make no concessions in regard to the Jewish faith, even if the Parliament should stipulate such as the condition on which civic equality to the Jews would be granted. The commission soon after addressed a petition to the Parliament, but it proved ineffective.

The emancipation of the Jews, was granted by the national assembly at Szeged on Saturday, the eve of the Ninth of Av (July 28, 1849). The bill, which was quickly debated and immediately became a law, realized all the hopes of the Reform party. The Jews obtained full citizenship; and the Ministry of the Interior was ordered to call a convention of Jewish ministers and laymen for the purpose of drafting a confession of faith, and of inducing the Jews to organize their religious life in conformity with the demands of the time. The bill also included the clause referring to marriages between Jews and Christians, which clause both Kossuth and the Reform party advocated.

The Jews enjoyed their civic liberty for just two weeks. When the Hungarian army surrendered at Világos to the Russian troops that had come to aid the Austrians in suppressing the Hungarian struggle for liberty, the Jews were severely punished for having taken part in the uprising. Haynau, the new governor of Hungary, imposed heavy war-taxes upon them, especially upon the communities of Pest and Óbuda, which had already been heavily taxed by Prince Alfred Windischgrätz, commander-in-chief of the Austrian army, on his triumphant entry into the Hungarian capital at the beginning of 1849. The communities of Kecskemét, Nagykörös, Cegléd, Irsa, Szeged, and Szabadka (Subotica) were punished with equal severity by Haynau, who even laid hands upon the Jews individually, executing and imprisoning several; others sought refuge in emigration. The several communities petitioned to be relieved of the tax imposed upon them. The ministry of war, however, decided that the communities of Pest, Óbuda, Kecskemét, Czegléd, Nagykörös, and Irsa should pay this tax not in kind, but in currency to the amount of 2,300,000 gulden. As the communities were unable to collect this sum, they petitioned the government to remit it, but the result was that not only the communities in question but the communities of the entire country were ordered to share in raising the sum, on the ground that most of the Jews of Hungary had supported the Revolution. Only the communities of Temesvár and Presburg were exempted from this order, they having remained loyal to the existing government. The military commission subsequently added a clause to the effect that individuals or communities might be exempted from the punishment, if they could prove by documents or witnesses, before a commission to be appointed, that they had not taken part in the Revolution, either by word or deed, morally or materially. The Jews refused this means of clearing themselves, and finally declared that they were willing to redeem the tax by collecting a certain sum for a national school-fund. Emperor Franz Joseph therefore remitted the war-tax (September 20, 1850), but ordered that the Jews of Hungary without distinction should contribute toward a Jewish school-fund of 1,000,000 gulden; and this sum was raised by them within a few years.

Struggles for a second emancipation (1859-1867)

The emancipation of the Jews remained in abeyance while the House of Habsburg held absolute sway in Hungary; but it was again taken in hand when the Austrian troops were defeated in Italy in 1859. In that year the cabinet, with Emperor Franz Joseph in the chair, decreed that the status of the Jews should be regulated in agreement with the times, but with due regard for the conditions obtaining in the several localities and provinces. The question of emancipation was again loudly agitated when the emperor convened the Diet on April 2, 1861; but the early dissolution of that body prevented it from taking action in the matter.

The decade of absolutism in Hungary (1849-1859) was beneficial to the Jews in so far as it forced them to establish schools, most of which were in charge of trained teachers. The government organized with the Jewish school-fund model schools at Sátoraljaújhely, Temesvár (Timişoara), Pécs, and Pest. In the last-named city it founded in 1859 the Israelite State Teachers' Seminary, the principals of which have included Abraham Lederer, Heinrich Deutsch, and Joseph Bánóczi. The graduates of this institution have rendered valuable services in the cause of patriotism and religious education.

When the Parliament dissolved in 1861, the emancipation of the Jews was deferred to the coronation of Franz Joseph. On December 22, 1867, the question came before the lower house, and on the favorable report of Kálmán Tisza and Zsigmond Bernáth a bill in favor of emancipation was adopted, which was passed by the upper house on the following day. This bill (article xvii of the Laws of the Parliament session of 1867) was received with universal satisfaction not only by the Jews, but also by the whole country. Although an Antisemitic Party was present in the Parliament, it was not taken seriously by the political elite of the country, and their agitation against Jews was not successful (see Tiszaeszlár blood libel).

20th Century: Persecution and destruction

The Jews of Hungary were fairly well integrated into Hungarian society by the time of the First World War. More than 10,000 Jews died and thousands upon thousands were wounded and disabled fighting for Hungary. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, the Communists briefly took power under Béla Kun, who was of Jewish ancestry. The regime collapsed after less than a year, and the reactionary forces under Miklós Horthy took power, launching a series of pogroms and violence known as the White Terror in 1919 in which 3,000 Jews were massacred

By 1920 the Terror had ended, but Horthy's government passed a number of anti-Jewish measures that led to the exclusion and isolation of the Jewish community, including those limiting Jews to five percent or less of university slots. These policies grew more repressive. Starting in 1938, Hungary under Horthy passed a series of anti-Jewish measures, probably to appease their German allies. The first, in 1938, restricted the number of Jews in liberal professions, administration, and commerce to twenty percent, and reduced it to five percent the following year. 250,000 Hungarian Jews lost their income. A "Third Jewish Law" was prohibited intermarriage and defined Jews racially.

The Holocaust

The first massacre of Hungarian Jews took place in July 1941, when 20,000 Jews were expelled from conquered Ruthenia to German-occupied Soviet territories, where they were killed by SS troops in the autumn of 1941.

With that being the only exception, the Hungarian Prime Minsters, and especially Regent Horthy, continually resisted German pressure and refused to allow the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the German extermination camps in occupied Poland as part of the Holocaust. This anomalous situation maintained until March 1944, when German troops marched into Budapest. SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann set up his staff in the Majestic Hotel and, having over three years of experience in annihilating Jewish communities all over Europe, proceeded at an unprecedented pace in the dejewification of all of the Hungarian provinces, outside of Budapest and its suburbs. The Yellow Star, Ghettoization, and Deportation were accomplished with lightning speed, in less than 8 weeks. The first transports to Auschwitz began on May 15, 1944. As Soviet troops were rapidly approaching the Hungarian border, and Eichmann and his staff knew the war was lost by then, the trains to Auschwitz rolled with extraordinary speed and efficiency. In the weeks from May 15 through July 8, over 400,000 Hungarian Jews were killed. For most of this time period, 12,000 Jews were delivered to Auschwitz in a typical day, among them the future writer and Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel, at age 15. Since at least 80 per cent of these people were gassed immediately, there was no way that the crematoria could possibly cope with this number, and special pits were dug near them, where bodies were simply burned in these open pits.

International protests began over what Winston Churchill called "the most monstrous crime in the history of the human race." Britain, Sweden, the United States, and even the Vatican issued strong protests and warnings to the German government. On July 8, as Eichmann was about to commence the deportations from the capital, Budapest, they finally had their effect: Horthy ordered the deportations to cease. Eichmann, enraged, had Horthy's son kidnapped and held hostage. The deportations lasted one more day.

From the Nyilas (Hungarian Arrow Cross ^*) coup in October, through the Russian liberation of Budapest in February 1945, the Jews in the Budapest Ghetto endured terror the likes of which were rarely seen even in Germany. People were simply shot at will, with their bodies dumped into the Danube river. Frequently the Hungarian Fascists didn't want to waste more than one bullet, so they simply tied three people together, and threw the lot into the Danube after shooting one of them, to sink them all. At this time, one of the most daring figures of the Holocaust emerged onto the stage: Raoul Wallenberg. Using a staff to prepare Protective Passports under the authority of the Swedish Legation, Wallenberg saved the lives of thousands of Jews. At one point, he actually appeared personally at the train station, insisting that many Jews on the train be removed, and presenting the Arrow Cross guards with the Protective Passports for many on the train. Carl Lutz, of the Swiss Legation, also saved many people in a similar manner. Nevertheless, by the end of the war, Hungary's Jewish community, perhaps the second-largest in Europe, had lost over 400,000, out of an initial population of over 800,000. (Randolph Braham, "The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary," 1988, 2 volumes, Columbia University Press, is the standard account of this period).

Communist Rule

Under Communist rule, Zionism and Jewish observance were outlawed, and many Jews were expelled from the cities to the provinces for a time. In the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, 20,000 or so Jews fled the country. Repression followed again, and, by 1967, only 80,000-90,000 Jews, including non-religious Jews, remained in the country, with the number dropping further before the country's Communist regime collapsed in 1989, and relations with Israel, dropped in 1967, resumed.

Today

Estimates of the number of Jews in Hungary range from 50,000 to 100,000, and intermarriage rates are around 60%. Though Hungary boasts a number of synagogues and three Jewish schools, anti-Semitism has been a growing problem, with violent incidents increasing. Most of the Jews in Hungary are unaffiliated. Since the fall of Communism there has been a modest spiritual revival of Jewish observance. In 2003 Slomo Köves was the first Orthodox Rabbi to be ordained in Hungary since the Holocaust. The ceremony was attended by rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Chief Rabbi of Israel as well as the President of Hungary, Ferenc Mádl, but his ordination was not accepted by the local Jewish community.

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