THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people
Vol. II. No. 31
DETROIT, MICH., SEPT. 28, 1917
The Jews of Hungary
By Samuel Bettelheim
The Carpathian Mountains were, un-
til recently, as insurmountable a bar-
rier for the spirit of the Jewish Renais-
sance as for the Russian Army.
Hungarian Jewry was as good as
excluded from contact with its for-
eign brethren by the •unknown lan-
guage it used. Added to this, was the
unfortunate dissension in the camp of
the Hungarian Jews, a more than
forty-years-old war, which absorbed
its entire attention and its whole in-
terest.
Since the remotest times, the Hun-
garian people have treated the Jews
with the utmost consideration. So
long as Hungary lived under the
sceptre of its own king, the Jews had
important privileges and occupied high
offices. Under Andreas II. (in the be-
ginning of the thirteenth century)
there was a Jewish Count Teka. Until
the loss of the independence of Hun-
gary, there was a kind of Minister for
Jewish affairs, the so-called "Jews-
Prefect." With regard to the Jews-
Prefect, Jacob Mandel, who lived in
the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
tury, a Christian chronicler relates
that, at the coronation of King Vladi-
slav II, no knight wore a more re-
spendent and lordly armor than the
Jews-Prefect, who appeared in the
procession with twenty elegantly ca-
parisoned steeds. Coins, bearing the
picture of Jacob Mandel, still exist.
He lived now in Pressburg, now in
Ofen.
After the unfortunate battle against
the Turks at Mohacs in 1526, when
Hungary- came under the rule of
Austria, the situation of the Jews was
influenced by the anti-Semitic spirit
of the states of central Europe. The
Jews of the leading community,
Pressburg, were expelled from Hun-
gary. They settled near the. frontier
and returned to Pressburg in 1599,
under the leadership of descendants
. of Jacob Mandel, who as court pur-
veyors and bankers enjoyed a very
great influence with Maria Theresa,
Joseph H, Leopold II and Francis I.
They were men of great piety and
secular learnity!, who were fully con-
versant with court etiquette. What a
liberal spirit then prevailed in the
community of Pressburg may be
judged from the fact that the son of
Rabbi Moses Charif, who died in
1758, received the degree of Doctor
of Medicine from a German uni-
versity.
A radical change took place when
the Hungarian capitol was moved
from Pressburg to Ofen (Hungarian
Buda) in 1783. The great stores and
banks of the Pressburg ghetto disap-
peared, the great stadlonium moved
to the new capital one after the other.
- But if Pressburg had ceased to be the
Jerusalem of Hungary, it became its
Jabne under Rabbis Barbi (1761) and
Tyseminitz (1783), and Rabbi Moses
Sofer (1807) acquired for the com-
munity, robbed of its .political leader-
ship, the spiritual ascendancy through
the great Yeschibah.
Of course, this was bound up with
a struggle against western European
culture which resulted in a victory as
great as it was tragic. A virtual cul-
tural retrogression tdok place in con-
servative Jewry, which strikingly con-
trasted with the tremendous cultural
upward trend of life in Hungary.
What wonder if the Jewish masses
turned to lend their Aid to the rebirth
of Hungary!
The Hungarian people heartily wel-
comed their talented Jewish brothers-
in-arms, because of their love of free-
dom and their self-reliance. The Jew,
more than the Hungarian himself,
could accomplish great things for the
development of Hungarian culture,
because he, saturated with German
learning, was a greater culture factor.
A new Jewish center, fired with the
liberty-love of the Hungarian people,
grew up in Budapest in the first dec-
ade of the nineteenth century. With
ardent zeal it participated in the
building up of Hungary; it contributed
authors, artists, leaders of industry,
scholars. The revolution of 1848
sealed with blood the bond of broth-
erhood between the Jews and Hun-
garians. The Jews fought in the
ranks of the revolutionists, and after
the revolt was subdued they were as-
sessed by the Austrian government
with a fine of one million gulden, and
the talented reform Rabbi Leopold
Loew was imprisoned because of his
utterances in favor of the independ-
ence of Hungary. Then followed an
epoch of economic and cultural prog-
ress for Hungarian Jewry; especially
when in 1866, Hungary received an
independent government, enabling it
to cultivate its own resources, the
gratitude of the Hungarian people for
their worthy champions expressed it-
self in social and political distinctions.
Now, however, assimilation ac-
quired a rap'.d tempo. The member of
Parliament, Moritz INahrmann, who,
with his financial genius, contributed
important services for the State, led
the orgy of assimilation. The con-
servative element would have been
wiped out if it had not been fortified
by the mass immigration of Galician
Jews. Here the Chassidic movement
held sway.
Now comes the fateful time for
Hungarian Jewry. The Hungarian
'Minister of Education, the famous
author, Baron Eotvos, a warm Judeo-
phil, made arrangements for the offi-
cial recognition of the Jewish relig-
ion, and called a Jewish Congress in
1868, which was to create a uniform
administration of Hungarian Judaism.
Three parties appeared at this Con-
gressz--the fanatical Eastern Jews, the
Magyar assimilators, and the enlight-
ened moderate conservative party
under the leadership of Rabbi Hildes-
heimer, subsequently Rabbi in Berlin.
The moderate party united with the
Chassidim and carried on a historic
memorable fight against the assimil-
ators, who were far superior to them
in numbers, position and influence.
The assimilators won out and the
statutes Which they had elaborated be-
came law. Then an astounding thing
happened. The Orthodox declared
that they would oppose the new law
when it would into effect.'
• In Parliament, the cause was cham-
pioned by such prominent statesmen
as the famous poet, Matirus Jokai.
The government had to yield, and in
1871, the Orthodox were given the au-
thority to establish a separate organi-
zation by an edict of the Emperor
Francis Joseph. This struggle did
not have its influence in Hungary
alone;. it strengthened the cause of
conservative Judaism in the whole of
western Europe.
Unfortunately, Orthodoxy gained
nothing positive from this division.
Becoming, through this organization,
(Continued on page 4)
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Final Drive For Ten Million Dollar
Fund In December
Jewish War Relief Work to Wind Up With Intensive Campaign in
New York City for $4,000,000. Other Big Cities
to Conduct Campaigns.
David A. Brown To Help Raise New York's Quota
New York.—Announcement was
made last Sunday by Jacob Billikopf,
Executive Director of the American
Jewish Relief Committee, of which
Louis Marshall is the Chairman, that
the first two weeks in December had
been selected for the campaign to be
undertaken by that committee and the
other Jewish Relief Committee to
raise in New York City, $4,000,000 to
complete the $10,000,000 Fund for
Jewish War Sufferers, in order to pro-
cure the $1,000,000 pledged by Julius
Rosenwald of Chicago.
Mr. Billikopf, who has just returned
from an extended tour of the country,
stated that plans for the campaign
had been laid with, great thorough-
ness, and the actual campaign would,
it was expected, be led by Jacob H.
Schiff, assisted by Charles R. Ward,
who conducted the $100,000,000 cam-
paign for the American Red Cross,
and who is Secretary of the Interna-
tional Y. M. C. A., and Mr. Billikopf.
Among those who will co-operate with
Mr. Schiff are Felix M. Warburg,
Louis Marshall, Dr. Stephen S. Wise,
Arthur Lehman, Paul Baerwald, Cy-
rus L. Sulzberger, Dr. J. L. Magnes,
Judge Ott6 A. Rosalsky, Nathan
Straus, Oscar S. Straus, Judge Julian
Mack, Henry Morgenthau, Abram I.
Elkus, Jacob Wertheim, David M.
Bressler, Dr. E. K. Frankel and Harry
Fischel. In addition to these and
many other New York men and
women, the campaign will be assisted
by several Jews of national promi-
nence, who have been successful in
raising funds in their own communi-
ties. Among these is David A.
Brown of Detroit, who has become
nationally famous as the "Dynamic
Director," in recognition of hiS splen-
dld management of the campaign in
Detroit last spring, in which the au-
tomobile city contributed over $325,-
000 to the fund.
Success Depends on New York.
Explaining the plans for the cam-
paign, Mr. Billikopf said it was desir-
able that the Jews of New York be
informed at the Yom Kippur 'season
what it was expected they must do
toward helping the war sufferers. As
a result of his tour, which took him to
the Pacific Coast, Mr. Billikopf as-
serted that he was convinced that the
rest of the country had done its share
in the $10,000,000 campaign, and that
the eyes of the Jews throughout the
nation were now turned on New York
to see if it would live up to its re-
sponsibility. The fact that 125 cities
had increased their individual contri-
butions this year from 25 to 500 per
cent over the total sum raised by
them in the two preceding years of
the war, despite the liberal contribu-
tions of Jews to the Red Cross, to
the Liberty Bond issue, and increased
war taxation. proved, Mr. Billikopf
added. that the movement for the re-
lief of the suffering Jews in the war
zones had been very creditably sup-
ported throughout the United States.
The influence of such men as Mr.
Schiff, Mr. Warburg, Mr. Rosenwald,
Mr. Marshall, Mr. Morgenthau, Na-
than Straus, and other men of nation-,
al prominence, who took a leading
part in planning the campaign, had
spread to the uttermost part of the
country, it was said,
:
Many Campaigns in Progress.
As a result of Mr. Billikopf's trip,
campaigns have been initiated, or are
in progress at the present time, in
Denver, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Los
Angeles and San Francisco. Plans
for campaigns to be held in the near
future have been initiated in Boston,
Atlanta, Ga.; Birmingham, Montgom-
ery and Mobile, Ala.; Dallas, Texas,
and other cities of the south.
"My trip throughout the country,"
Mr. Billikopf declared, "was most in-
spiring. I found signs of a great
awakening among the Jews of the en-
tire country. This has reflected itself
immediately on the cause of war re-
lief, and, generally speaking, the Jews
throughout the nation, in having al-
ready pledged a sum in excess of
$5,000,000, have shown a deep sense of
their obligation and have arisen to
their duty in a manner which 'is in-
spiring to those who have sought to
alleviate the suffering in Europe and
in Palestine. I might say that in a
charitable sense the Jewish communi-
ties of America have found them-
selves, have come to realize the need
and have come to appreciate that this
need can only be met by individual
and collective sacrifice by the Jews
in every city and village.
"But just as other communities
have done their duty, New York has,-
to a very large extent, failed to do its
duty. The several very large indi-
vidual contributions from leaders of
Jewish philanthropy in New York but
more strongly call attention to the
failure of the rank and file of Jews,
and more particularly of the comfort-
ably off middle class and the moder-
ately wealthy, to do their share.
"It is absolutely essential that New
York raise $4,000,000, if the entire
sum of $1,000,000, representing 10 per
cent of the amount raised in the na-
tion and pledged by Mr. Rosenwald,
is to be secured toward the fund. Mr.
Rosenwald is extremely desirous of
making his entire pledge good, and it
is now right up to the Jews of New
York City whether or not he shall
do so."
Y. M. H. A. CONDEMNS ACTION
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
AGAINST JEWS
Boston.—The refusal of President
Lowell, of Harvard University, to
change the dates for entrance examina-
tions because they fall on Jewish New
Year and 'to make provisions for other
dates when Jewish students may take
these examinations, was condemned by
the 500 delegates to the convention of
the Associated Young Men's Hebrew
Associations of New England at Faneuil
Hall.
The resolutions state that "the author-
ities were notified in advance and that
President Lowell, although duly request-
ed, refused to make any provision for
those desiring to take the examinations
on other days."
The delegates declared the attitude of
President Lowell to be unfair, undemo-
cratic, and a clear violation of the spirit
of religious freedom and tolerance. It
was the opinion of many that the ideas
supporting the position of Harvard are
narrow and proscriptive and out of har-
mony with the spirit of these times,