The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1919-09-10


Austrian army, supported by the
cars troops, put Hungary back I'M
der the yoke of the Hapsburgs. As WE
see ii now in the case of the Dol
sheyiki in Russia and i'll Hungary with
the government of Bella Kun, the Jews
were held responsible for the whole
trouble. Haynau, the commander OF
the imperial troops, and Prince WIN
dischgraetz, the dictator, imposed
heavy penalties on the Jews as class.
They We're to pay over two millions
of gulden as a fine. The sum was
afterwards reduced to one million by
the emperor who besides devoted this
sum to Jewish educational purposes
and part of it serves to maintain the
rabbinical seminary, established in
1877.
The Jews We're by no means as prom
inent then as they We're during the
recent revolution. One of the advisors
of the government was ieshibah
Hahur from Presburg, Ignaz (Eiseck)
Einhorn, afterwards Edward Horn.
assistant secretary Of state. 4 prom
lent advocate of Magyar Independence
was Leopold Loew, rabbi of szegedin
(1S11-1S75), who narrowly escaped
from the gallows. Loew, by the way,
was native of Moravia, and his
brother was quite an enthusiastic
::ech.
Hungary never recognized Austria's
right to dictate to her. She, there
fore, did not send any delegates to
the parliament Of Vienna. nor did she
recognize the austrian Law which
gave to the Jews polifichf Fights. . II
was not until after the defeat Of Aus
tria in 1866. when Hungary gained
her autonomy, that law was passed
in Dec. 1867 which gave the Jews full
political and civic equality. A year
later Moritz Wahrmann, the grand
son of rabbi of Pest, became the first
Jewish member of the Hungarian
parliament. The Jews did not consih-
er their fight as completely won. They
| wanted to be recognized rs a church.
This had hardly any significance for
the individual except insofar that un-
der the existing law conversion to Ju-
daism was not permitted, and mar
riage between Jews and non-Jews was
prohibited. The difficulty was large
\ ~, tho not entirely. due 10 the Jews
The government had called u congress
of Jews in 1866 for the purpose of
4 establishing an organization of alj
Jews Of the country, largely, ! sup
pose, because it wanted them to be
come Magyars, while most of them
still spoke Yiddish. The orthodox and
the reformers could not agree. and so
Two different organizat lions had to he
created which. however, did not sat
isfy everybody. Some congregations
would not join either organization. and
so chaos became greater than ever be-
fore. Perhaps in no other country
so much trouble with internal Jewish
affairs as in Hungary. y story which
sounds like joke, but is literally
true, happened in 1872 in the city of
Freystadtl (GaIgocz). Two parties
went into court. and the judge settled
their difficulty by compromise, de-
claring which party had the right to
appoint the readers1 Baal Tefillah),
the ,shofar blower and how the henors
of being called up ITO the Torall and
of opening the ark :are TO be divided.
Another obstacle in the way OF, -rec-
ignition of the Jewish church came
from the clericals who opposed the le-
galization of conversian to Judaism
and the intermarriage. The fight last
ed nearly 30 years, being won in 1895.
so rosy for the Jews. Hungary had
of all European parliaments the frs:
anti Semitic party, and from il came
the first official move to deal with
the Jewish homeland. Victor de
1stoczi. the leader of the anti-Semitic
party moved on July II. 1878, while
the Congress of Berlin was in session,
that the sultan be compelled to give
up Palestine and that all Jews should
be deported there. 1t created at that |
time merely amusement. Theodore |
Herzl. then student in Vienna. would
have laughed heartily, if anyone had