Famous Hungarian Jews

[Jaga]

I always felt that somehow Poles and Polish Jews never reached the level of Hungarian Jews. There was more Nobel Prize winners among Hungarian Jews than any other Jewish, non-Jewish group of people.

Let me start with nuclear physicists:

Edward Teller, physicist, hydrogen bomb, very famous and smart physicist also took part in building of atomic bom

Leo Szilard (1898-1964) participated in the American Manhattan Project but
afterwards became a leading critic of the Cold War nuclear arms race

why we did not have such smart physicists in Polish Jewish community?

[suzanne]

Jaga,
I can't explain why Hungarian Jews as a group have stood out in terms of intellectual achievements. For one thing, I don't know enough history to say how well they were integrated into and accepted by Hungarian society. But yes, Hungary, a country with only 15 million people, has produced a lot of famous people in many fields.

A few other famous Hungarian Jews to add to your list:
Dr. Moritz Kaposi, a 19th c. dermatologist who gave his name to the skin cancer we now call Kaposi's sarcoma

Paul Erdos, mathematician

Imre Kertesz, writer

Andre Kertesz, 20th c. photographer

[Jaga]

Susanne,

I am not sure it has anything to do with their intergration to the society - you know, Jews were able to preserve their identity by not integrating as well - but they were probably able to get good education etc.

[kaima]

I will step into the mine field and see what comes of my Hungarian history. By the end of the 1800’s the city and high cultural life in Hungary was concentrating in Budapest after the two cities unified and became the capitol in the mid 1800’s. The Jews were in Hungary for centuries and after the mid 1800's were forming a very large part of the developing middle class in Hungary. They were getting rich, getting educated and getting assimilated as Hungarians. They were a very integral part of Hungarian culture by the start of the 1900’s. There was some anti-Semitism but evidently not enough to stop the Jewish community from further development and influence in education and the sciences. When anti-Semitism did rear its head, one of the demands was to place quotas on numbers of Jewish students in higher education so other Hungarians would have a chance to move into the middle class as well.

So a rich cultural life, good and expanding educational opportunities, and a lively vibrant culture in Budapest were all factors I would point to.

[Jaga]

Kai, Susan,

you may be right with assimilation issue after all and this may help the education system. Anti-semitism was never very deep in Hungary. Do you know that many Jews from Hungary were saved during WW II because the Hungarian president Horthy refused to send them to camps? For the part of the war he was imprisoned and this was the time when all deportations were taking place.

[Jaga]

Another famous Jewish Hungarian is the inventor of holography:
Dennis Gabor, physicist, holography; Nobel Prize (1971)

and Eugene Paul Wigner famous for his discoveries in quantum and solid state physics

[suzanne]

Jaga,
I only mentioned integration into society (and perhaps integration wasn't the right word) because the more a part of society any minority group is, the easier it is for them to get an education and move ahead in the world. Conversely, the more segregated a minority group is, the harder it will be for them to have any kind of advancement.

Kai,
Your post re: a rich cultural life, esp. in Budapest, reminded me of a book I read several years ago called Budapest 1900. Ever heard of this book? It was fascinating reading.

[kaima]

Yes, that is one of the books in my collection. I have quite a few books on Hungarian history, since if you read between the lines in the old books you read teh hsitory of the Slovaks and the Rusyn. The latest three books I bought are far more balanced than the old ones were, but sometimes the prejudice expressed helps carry a message as well.

I also have Vienna 1914, which tells a fascinating story about Vienna at that time and all the famous and infamous people who lived there that year, as well as expressing the values of the time....

Kai

[suzanne]

kaima said:

I also have Vienna 1914, which tells a fascinating story about Vienna at that time and all the famous and infamous people who lived there that year, as well as expressing the values of the time....

Kai

Not familiar with that one, but it sounds like something I'd be interested in. I'll check it out, and add it to my ever-growing "Books to be Read" list!

I think I'll need a couple of spare lifetimes to get through the whole thing....

I'm currently making my way through Paul Lendvai's "The Hungarians".

[pieter]

Jaga,

Also the Hungarian gypsies were more develloped or sophisticated in their music than gypsies
in other European countries, a lot of them were classical trained and the Hungarian gypsy
music therefore has classical elements. I know from the Austrian writer Joseph
Roth (1894-1939), that the Habsburg empire was quite popular amongst jews,
because they had a good life under the rule of the Moderate Austrian-Hungarian empire.
Hungary was a part of that, and maybe the Hungarian jews were able to devellop themselves
extraordinary and in a special way under the century long stability of the Habsburgs.
Poland however was less stabile with it's partitions, wars, invading enemies and the majority
of the Polish jews was very poor, like their Polish Catholic peasent neighbours.
Hungary was wealthy, quiet and stabile while it was under the habsburg rule.

[Jaga]

Pieter, Susanne,

it must be something in Hungarian culture which gives quick start all these minorities. Hungarian history is quite unusual with Attyla, Huns, Árpád etc. So maybe the mixture of Hungarian culture and Jewish blood gives an extra gift to a person