קהילת יהודי אגר

Sandor Brody (1863-1924), author, born in Eger, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He began his career as a journalist. In 1902 he started his own journal and in 1905 helped to found the weekly Jovendo. His writing reflected a typical Budapest form of humor. He was the first writer in Hungarian literature to depict the character of the Jewish worker. Brody was a pioneer of Hungarian literary prose of the 20th century. His plays were highly popular; some were produced outside Hungary and several were adapted for the screen.

Dezso Kanitz de Nagyecser (1856-1938), banker and industrialist, the a son of a wealthy landowner and merchant, born in Eger, Heves county, Hungary. His father made him partner in his business ventures.

In 1894 he founded the "Agrar Takarekpenztar" ("Farmers Savings Bank"), which under his guidance became one of the most important provincial banks in Hungary. By founding thirteen commercial and industrial enterprises, he contributed notably to the economic prosperity of his native town and county. He played a prominent part in the public and social life of the city of Eger and of Heves county.

Kanitz was president of the Jewish congregation and of the Hevrah Kaddishah of Eger. In 1910 Kanitz was knighted and authorized to use the title "de Nagyecser." after his name. The building of a beautiful new synagogue in Eger (1913) and the transformation of the old synagogue into a Jewish cultural centre were a result of his initiative.

Therese F. Benedek (1892-1977), psychoanalyst, born in Eger, Hungary, she obtained her clinical experience in Budapest, Hungary, and Leipzig, Germany. In the early 1930s she moved to the USA and in 1936 became a staff member of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. She specialized in the psychological implications of female sexual functions and the personal disturbances connected with their impairment. Her books included The Sexual Cycle in Women and Psychosexual Functions in Women.

Aaron Wise (1844-1896), rabbi, born in Eger, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was the son of Joseph Hirsch Weiss, chief rabbi of Eger, and the father of Otto Irving Wise, a lawyer of San Francisco, and of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York.

After having completed his education at the Eisenstadt Talmudical academy and the Universities of Leipzig and Halle in Germany, he was for several years director of schools in Eger. In 1873 he immigrated to the United States, where he became rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation in Brooklyn. In 1875 he received a call to Temple Rodeph Sholom in New York City, where he served exactly twenty-one years until his death.

Wise was one of the founders of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the first vice-president of its advisory board. Wise founded the Rodeph Sholom Sisterhood of Personal Service, which later established the Aaron Wise Industrial School in his memory.

He was an editor for some years of the Jewish Harold and the "Boston Hebrew Observer", wrote a religious school textbook and "Beth Aaron", a prayer-book in English. Wise also assisted in the revision of Buxtorf's Hebrew lexicon. He died in New York.

Lazar (Eliezer) (Alois) Schweiger (1872-1943), rabbi and ethnologist, born in Nagytapolcsany, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Topoľčany, Slovakia). After receiving a thorough Talmudic training in Hungary, he studied at the Universities of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland, receiving the degree of doctor of philosophy. From 1904 to 1929 he served as rabbi at Eger, Hungary; in 1929 he was called to serve in Nitra, Slovakia. After 1943 nothing is known of him an it is assumed he perished in the Holocaust. 

Schweiger was a distinguished ethnologist and ethno-psychologist. Among his published works, many of which appeared originally in Hungarian, were: "Philosophie der Geschichte, Voelkerpsychologie und Sociologie in ihren gegenseitigen Beziehungen" (1899); "Das Gesetz der grossen Zahl" (1904); "Die logischen Methoden der Ethnologie" (1909); "Die Anknuepfungspunkte der Kunst und Ethnographie" (1910); :Die Jubilaen der Deszendenztheorie" (1910); "Die Religion im Lichte der Voelkerpsychologie" (1911); "Moritz Lazarus" (1911); "Der Neodarwinismus" (1912).