קהילת יהודי ברטיסלבה

Mihaly (Miska) Hauser (1822-1887), violinist and composer, born in Pozsony, Hungary (Pressburg, then part of the Austrian Empire, now Bratislava, Slovakia).

He studied the violin under Joseph Boehm, Konradin Kreutzer, Joseph Mayseder and Simon Schechter in Vienna, Austria. In 1840 he went on a world wide performing tour, covering Germany (1940), then Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia (1842), England (1851) North and South America, Australia, Pacific islands, then (1858) India, Egypt, Malta, Turkey and the Balkans. He was the first European artist to appear in the Hawaiian Islands. He toured Italy (1864) and then performed in Paris, Berlin, and Koln. He enjoyed a great success wherever he played his violin. His best known compositions are Rhapsodie Hongroise and Der Blinde Leiermann.

Hauser is also remembered for his Wanderbuch eines Oesterreichischen Virtuosen: Briefe aus Californien, Südamerika und Australien "(Wanderings of an Austrian Virtuoso: Letters from California, South-America and Australia", 2 vols., Leipzig, 1858-1859) - a reprint of his letters to the Ostdeutsche Post, Vienna, on his American and Australian tour.

Hauser died in Vienna.

Ignac Hirschler (1823-1891), ophthalmologist and communal leader, born in Pozsony, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire, now Bratislava, in Slovakia). He studied medicine at the Universities of Pest and Vienna, and worked for several years at the ophthalmologic clinics of Vienna and Paris, France. In 1949 he returned to Pest. Unable to obtain the position of lecturer at the University of Pest because he was a Jew, he became ophthalmic physician in the hospital for poor children and later physician in Pest general hospital. For a while Hirschler was the only ophthalmologist in Budapest. His skillful eye surgery and studies won him the status of researcher, He introduced new methods and published studies in various European periodicals.

Hirschler was also active in Jewish public life and from 1861 to 1863 was president of the Jewish community of Pest. He took an active part in the struggle for the emancipation and Magyarization of Hungarian Jewry. A friend and adviser of the minister of public worship and education, Otvos, he was elected president of the national Jewish congress of 1868-69 which had been convened by the minister for the purpose of reorganizing Jewish communal life. He founded the "Magyar Izraelita Egylet" (Hungarian-Jewish Association) and also an association to grant scholarships to needy Jewish students. His efforts made a significant contribution to the efforts to elevate Jewish young people to the general secular educational level of the time, but by promoting the organization of the Neolog (Reform) movement throughout Hungary he caused a rift in the Jewish community. He finally retired from Jewish affairs, discouraged by the violent protests of the traditionalist camp.

From 1869 Hirschler was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1874 he became president of the Royal Hungarian Association of Physicians, and subsequently a member of the National Public Health Board. As a member of the Upper Chamber of the Hungarian Parliament after 1885, he was considered to be the representative of Hungarian Jewry in that body. He wrote a number of books on medical matters.

Heinrich Reinhardt (1865-1922), composer and music critic, born in Pozsony, Hungary (Pressburg in German, now Bratislava, Slovakia). He started his musical education in Hungary. In 1881 he went to Vienna, Austria, to continue his studies. Subsequently he became music critic on several Viennese newspapers; including the "Wiener Zeitung" and the "Morgenzeitung", of which he also was an editor.

Reinhardt composed an opera, "Der Soeldner"; a comic opera, "Die Minnekoenigin"; and several operettas, including "Das suesse Maadel"; "Die liebe Schatz"; "Der Generalkonsul"; "Kried im Frieden"; "Die suessen Grisetten"; "Die erste Frau", and "Der Gast des Koenigs".

Adolf Frankl (1903-1983), painter and Auschwitz survivor, born in Pressburg (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Bratislava, in Slovakia), the son of an interior designer. He studied at the school of Applied Arts in Pressburg and subsequently at the Technical University of Brno, Czech Republic, where he worked on a part time basis designing advertising posters and as a caricaturist.

In 1937 he established his own interior decoration business but in 1941 the company was expropriated (Aryanized) and he and his family were forced to live in a ghetto. In November 1944 he and his entire family were arrested and deported. His wife and two children succeeded in escaping from the transport while he continued to Auschwitz. He survived there until January 1945 when Auschwitz was evacuated and he joined a death march in the direction of Gleiwitz. He escaped to a forest and hid until liberated by the Soviet Army. April 1945 he made his way back to Bratislava where he was reunited with his family and reestablished his company. In 1950 he moved to Vienna, Austria, then to New York, USA, and finally to Germany.

It was only after the war that the full horror of what he had lived through began to trouble him in the form of recurrent nightmares. It was suggested that he paint as a way of working through his horrific experiences. The result was a series of pictures, painted in 1945 and later, which made up a cycle entitled Visions of the Inferno-Art Against Oblivion. A picture donated to Yad Vashem is entitled Distribution of food in Auschwitz-Birkenau. ‘Being an eye-witness, a sufferer myself,” wrote Frankl, “ I want to conjure the indescribable fear and the undeserved fate of millions of Jews, of other fellow prisoners, of children and of those unborn. In such moments, I am seized with righteous anger and with memories carved indelibly on my mind, I seek to capture them with my hands, to express them in such a way that this tragedy become a warning testimony to future generations. Through my paintings I have created a memorial for all nations of the world,” he concluded. “No one, regardless of religion or political convictions, should ever again suffer-such or similar- atrocities”.

Other paintings produced by him between 1930 and 1982 depict scenes from Jewish life, coffee houses, railway stations, courtrooms and auction houses.

Somlo Bodog (1873-1920), jurist and sociologist, born in Pozsony, Hungary (aka Pressburg, then part of Austria-Hungary, now Bratislava, Slovakia). He studied in the Universities of Kolozsvar, Hungary, (now Cluj Napoca, Romania), Leipzig and Heidelberg, Germany. He was lecturer in the University of Kolozsvar to which, after teaching in the Academy of Law at Nagyvarad, Hungary (now Oradea, Romania), he returned in 1905 as professor of the philosophy of law. From 1918 to 1919 he was professor in the University of Budapest. Bodog converted to Christianity.

He belonged to the circle of the eminent scholar Gyula Pikler. Starting from the analysis of law, which is a creation of society, both men delved into investigations concerning society itself. Pikler took the additional step toward physiological psychology in an effort to provide an even more positive basis for his thought. Somlo stopped at research on society and followed, or rather was in advance of the contemporary trend, by ascribing to the collectivity a predominant importance over the individual. He collaborated with Pikler on "Der Ursprung des Totemismus" (1900). He wrote books in Hungarian on the laws governing sociology, thus contributing towards making that field of research a science, and on state control and individualism (1903). He also published in German "Der Gueterverkehr in der Urgesellschaft" (1909) and "Zur Gruendung einer beschreibenden Sociologie" (1909). His posthumously published work (1921) dealt significantly with Niccolo Machiavelli, whose state philosophy was to dominate in the subsequent decades. During the First World War he wrote articles which sought to disprove the sociological arguments of the anti-Semitic author Peter Agoston.

Somlo served as vice-president of the Association of Social Studies in Budapest.

In 1920, he committed suicide in Cluj.

Moses Haim Lits Rosenbaum (1864-1943), rabbi, born in Pozsony (Pressburg), Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire (now Bratislava, Slovakia). He was ordained by Simhah Bunim Sofer and served as rabbi of two large communities, first in Szilagysomlyo (Simleul Silvaniei), Transylvania, (now in Romania) from 1888 to 1897, and then from 1898 until his death in Kisvarda (Kleinvardein), Hungary.

On the death of R. Kopel Reich in 1929, he was asked to represent Orthodox Jewry in the upper house of the Hungarian parliament but refused, preferring to devote himself to his large community. Rosenbaum was an excellent preacher in Yiddish, German, and Hungarian. He published Meshiv Devarim (2 parts, 1900-02), response on Orah Hayyim and Yoreh De'ah by his father Gershon, rabbi of Tallya, adding his own notes. He was also the author of Lehem Rav (1921), on the prayer book. The bulk of his writings, however, which fill 15 large volumes, remained in manuscript; among them is a diary, one chapter of which was published by Ben-Menahem in Aresheth, 1 (1958), that is of considerable interest.

Although an extremist in religious matters, Rosenbaum did not ignore the Haskalah literature, and sent a message of congratulation to Leopold Zunz, founder of Wissenschaft des Judentums (Judaic Studies), on his 90th birthday. One of his two sons, Samuel, who succeeded him in Kisvarda, perished in the Holocaust in 1944, and his grandson, Pinhas Rosenbaum, published his responsa Elleh Divrei Shemu'el in 1961.

Samuel Ben David Zvi Ehrenfeld ("The Hatan Sofer") (1835-1883), rabbi, born in Pressburg (now Bratislava, in Slovakia). He is known as "Hatan Sofer," ("son-in-law of Sofer", to indicate his connection by marriage with the famous Moses Sofer, and to sound like the title of Sofer's work "Hatam Sofer". Actually it was his father who was the son-in-law of Moses Sofer. Ehrenfeld studied under his father and in the yeshiva of Pressburg under Abraham Sofer, his maternal uncle. At first he engaged in business, but when this did not work out, he agreed in 1866 to be appointed rabbi of Betlen ( Beclean, now in Romania). In 1868 he became rabbi of Szikszo, which had a more important and larger yeshivah. In 1877 he moved to Mattersdorf (now Mattersburg, in Austria) where his grandfather and other members of this family had served before him. He devoted himself totally to the interests of the community and its yeshiva. He died at Kierling (Nagymarton), Austria, where he had gone to recuperate after a long illness.

As a teacher Ehrenfeld imparted his own approach to Talmud and halakhah, based on a clear understanding of the Talmudic text and its relevance to the halakhah to which it was related.

His clarity and complete mastery of all branches of the halakhah is evident in his published works which included Ateret Bahurim, Hatan Sofer (one part was published in1874). He wrote on various topics from Hoshen Mishpat, and Hatan Sofer on the Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim (one part was published in 1878). Both have long aggadic introductions. He wrote a biography of his grandfather. Hatan Sofer which was edited with an introduction by his son, Simhah Bunim Ehrenfeld (1912), and contains a biography of his father. Misped Mar (1874) was his next work. A Passover Haggadah 1884 with his own commentary and also that of his grandfather was edited by Rabbi Joseph Baumgarten (later rosh bet din of Vienna).

Ehrenfeld was succeeded in Mattersdorf in 1884 by his son Simhah Bunim (1856-1926), author of Ma'aneh Simhah, who later became rabbi in Sarvar.

Isaac (Ignaz) Ben Eliezer Lipman Kunstadt (1858-1909), rabbi, born in Pressburg (Pozsony) Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire, now Bratislava, Slovakia). He studied under Abraham Samuel Benjamin Sofer (Schreiber), and afterward proceeded to Vienna, Austria. He was rabbi of Nagyabony (now Veľké Blahovo, Slovakia), from 1862 to 1882, and of the "status quo" community (the moderates who stood between the Orthodox and the Neolog communities) of Nagyvarad (now Oradea, Romania) from 1882 to 1884. In the latter year he was appointed chief rabbi of Radauti (Radautz), in Bukovina (now in Romania). Kunstadt was a fluent preacher in German, but his ignorance of Hungarian, which was then rapidly becoming the vernacular of Hungarian Jewry, was a stumbling block. He is the author of Lu'ah Erez (2 pts., 1885-87), consisting of Talmudic novellae and scriptural interpretations; Lu'ah Erez he-Hadash, a second edition with additions, was published in Vienna in 1915. Many of the sermons he preached on special occasions were published as separate pamphlets.

Karl Bettelheim (1840-1895), physician, born in Pozsony (also Pressburg, then part of the Austrian Empire, now Bratislava, Slovakia). He studied at the University of Vienna, Austria. After receiving his diploma he became assistant to Professor Oppolzer. In 1870 he was appointed professor of internal medicine at the University of Vienna, and for the next eight years edited the "Medizinisch-Chirurgische Rundschau". For several years he was head of the department of internal medicine at the Vienna Polyclinic. Bettelheim made notable contributions to the study of the coronary arteries mitral insufficiency, and functional disorders of the heart.

He wrote a number of important medical research papers, the most noteworthy of which were "Ueber bewegliche Koerperchen im Blute" (1868); "Ueber einen Fall von Phosphorvergiftung" (1868, W. Med. Pr.); "Ein Fall von Echinococcus Cerebri" (1878); "Stenose eines Astes der Pulmonararterie"; "Bemerkungen zur Diagnose des Magencarcinoms"); "Die sichtbare Pulsation der Arteria Bracchialis" (1878) "Die Bandwuermer beim Menschen," in "Sammlung klinischer Vortraage" (1879); "Entstehung des zweiten Tones in der Carotis", (1883).

Karl Bettelheim died in Vienna.

Samuel Bettelheim (1872-1942), early Zionist and Mizrachi leader and journalist, born in Pressburg (then part of the Austria-Hungary, now Bratislava, Slovakia), where he received a religious and secular education. Under the influence of Theodor Herzl he formed the first Zionist association in Hungary in 1897, and served as its president for three years. He organized the first Zionist Conference in Pressburg. Chief Rabbi Reines commissioned him to organize the first world congress of the Mizrachi movement (1904). Bettelheim served as the Hungarian representative at the committee of World Zionists for seven years. In 1908, he published and edited the Zionist weekly, Ungarlaendische Juedische Zeitung, which was published in Budapest. During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian government sent him on a mission to the United States to influence American Jewry in its favor. In 1917 he enlisted in the army.

After WW1, he became one of the leading Zionists in Czechoslovakia. However, he opposed many of the political and cultural activities of the Zionist Organization, and later he joined the anti-Zionist Agudat Israel. He edited their newspaper Juedische Presse in Bratislava and Vienna and from 1922 Juedische Zeitung in Bratislava, where he propounded the views of Agudat Israel. In 1934-35, he published in Bratislava a German-language monthly called Judaica, devoted to Jewish literature and history. For some years he lived in the Unites States, where he published the Jewish Weekly Bulletin. However, he returned to Hungary and during his last years he was a correspondent for foreign newspapers.