קהילת יהודי שופרון, אודנבורג

Lajos Doczy (Doczi Ludwig, Louis) (1845-1918), author, poet and playwright, also known as L. Dux Doczy, born in Sopron, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was a descendent of a family who had been active in the Hungarian struggle for independence in 1848. He studied law in Vienna, Austria. Working initially as a journalist, he made a name for himself by reporting the coronation ceremony of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph as King of Hungary in a series of picturesque letters in the "Neue Freie Presse" of Budapest. He contributed to many newspapers and magazines including the "Pesti Naplo", "Hirmondo", "Fremdenblatt", and "Reform".

Doczy was a founder of the neo-Romantic school of Hungarian drama and became famous mainly as a writer of historical plays. Many of his plays were produced in both Austria and Hungary. Best known among these were "Az utolso profeta" ("The Last Prophet"). 1869, dealing with the destruction of Jerusalem; "Csok" ("Kiss") 1874; "Utolso Szerelem" ("Last Love") 1884; "Szechy Maria", 1886; "Vera grofno" ("Countess Vera"), and "Vegyes: Parok" ("Mixed Couples"), 1889. Equally at home with German and Hungarian culture, Doczy wrote and translated classical works into both languages. His translation of Goethe’s Faust at the request of the National Theatre of Hungary, where it was first produced in 1885, further enhanced his reputation. He likewise produced the first German rendition (1892) of Imre Madach's "Az Ember tragediaja" ("The Tragedy of Man"), a Hungarian classic. He also translated into German poems of the renowned Hungarian poets Janos Arany and Mihaly Vorosmarty.
Doczy's later works include "Koltemenyek "("Poems") 1890; "Schiller oesszes koeltemenyei" ("All the Poems of Schiller") 1902; "Ellinor kiralyleany" ("Queen Ellinor") 1892; "Wallerstein Trilogia" ("Wallerstein Trylogy") 1904; "Ghoethe koeltemenyei" ("Ghoethe's Poems") 1906; and "Nevtelen levelek Tisza Kalmanhoz" ("Anonymous Letters to Kalman Tisza") 1872. In appreciation of his literary achievements he was made a baron. Doczy converted to Christianity.

Philip Gruenvald (1887-1964), historian and educator, born in Sopron, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), the son of Mano Grunwald, rabbi of the Orthodox congregation in the town. In 1913 Grunwald started his teaching career at the Jewish secondary school in Budapest. From 1919 to 1948 he taught at the Jewish High School and from 1948 to 1958 he was its principal.

From the early 1950s until his death he taught Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Budapest. As a teacher he was held in great esteem, especially because of his absolute integrity and religious sincerity. Grunwald also served the Jewish Museum in Budapest for 30 years, first as curator and later as director.

In 1927 he presented an outline for a history of the Jews in Hungary in A Zsido Gimnazium Ertesitoje, 8 (1927):12-29. Later wrote of the history of the Jews in Buda, A zsidok tortenete Budan (1938). His other works dealt with aspects of the history of Jews in Hungary. His major work was the continuation of Monumenta Hungariae Judaica, which he edited together with A. Scheiber.

Karoly Pap (1897-1945), author born in Sopron, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), where his father was the rabbi of the Neolog Miksa Pollak community. Pap was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I and was decorated for bravery. After demobilization, he joined Bela Kun's October Revolution and became a Hungarian Red Army commander. On the collapse of the revolution he was arrested, reduced to the ranks, and condemned to 18 months' imprisonment. After his release he left the country until 1925. Then he returned, settled in Budapest and began writing poetry and stories. He soon became known as a short story writer, but wishing to remain independent, he refused to take any employment.

Pap's first novel, "Megszabaditottal a halaltol" ("Thou Hast Delivered Me from Death," 1932), which dealt with a popular Jewish Messiah in the time of Jesus, was enthusiastically received by liberal and radical writers, notably the great Hungarian author, Zsigmond Moritz, who gave him much encouragement. The character of Jesus and the period in which he lived recur constantly in Pap's writings, not because of any attraction to Christianity but because, in his opinion, this "classical" period of Judaism retained traces of the Divinity, and at the same time presented social contrasts and gave Jews the taste of suffering. His great autobiographical novel "Azarel" (1937), which portrayed his father's house through the eyes of a child, aroused indignation among Jewish readers because of the cruel frankness of the description. In his sensational essay, "Zsido sebek es bunok" ("Jewish Wounds and Sins", 1935), Pap made a thorough and candid analysis of his Jewish and non-Jewish social surroundings. He traced the history of the Jews, particularly of Hungarian Jewry, in order to expose conventional lies, especially those concerning emancipation. He found only one solution to the Jewish problem: acceptance of the fate of a national minority. He himself was fanatically attached to all aspects of Jewish life and was uncompromising in his loyalty.

During World War II, The Budapest Jewish Theatre performed two biblical plays by Pap: "Bathsheba" (1940) and "Moses" (1944). In May 1944 he was sent to a labor camp. From there he refused to escape and was deported to Buchenwald, and is presumed to have been murdered in Bergen-Belsen. Three works which appeared posthumously were "A szuzesseg fatylai" ("The Vials of Chastity,"1945), "A Hoszobor" ("The Snow Statue." 1954) and "B varosaban tortent" ("It Happened in the City B," 2 vols., 1964).

Miksa Pollak (1868-1944), rabbi and historian, born in Beled, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). He was ordained at the rabbinical seminary of Budapest in 1894, and from that time on served as chief rabbi of the Reform community of Sopron, Hungary.

He published "A zsidok Becsujhelyen" ("Jews in Wiener Neustadt", 1892, in German: "Die Juden in Wiener-Neustadt" 1927); "Das Judentum und seine Parteien" (1895); "A zsidok tortenete Sopronban" ("A History of the Jews at Sopron"; 1896, in German: "Die Geschichte der Juden in Oedenburg", 1929). He was author also of "Abodath Yisrael" (1924). His monographs on the Bible in the works of Hungarian poets (Arany Janos 1904; Tompa Mihaly, 1912, and Madach Imre 1935-1939) were published with the aid of the Hungarian academy. He contributed articles to the "Monatschrift fuer Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums", "Oesterreichische Wochenschrift" and the jubilee volume in honor of Moses Bloch (1905). He also published a Hungarian translation of a prayer book. Despite new sources, Pollak's works are still considered valid in their major conclusions. He was an outstanding preacher and a volume of his sermons was published in 1938.

Author Karoly Pap was his son.

ארון הקודש בבית הכנסת בשופרון, הונגריה
לפי השערות הארכיאולוגים נבנה בית הכנסת בשנת 1350

המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, אנו - מוזיאון העם היהודי
 

Mor (Moritz) Friedmann (1826-1891), cantor, born in Hraboc, near Presov in north east Slovakia (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied Talmud at Papa and Pressburg (now Bratislava, in Slovakia). He held a post as teacher at Brezova while continuing to study both religious and secular subjects.

As a child he was a noted boy soprano, and already by the age of twelve he supported himself by leading prayers at the synagogue. In Budapest, Hungary, cantor David Broder accepted him as a member of his choir. Later he went to Oedenburg (now Sopron, in Hungary) where he was appointed assistant cantor and Hebrew teacher, and at the age of 22 he became the official cantor at Sopron. Then he went on to study at the conservatory of Vienna, Austria. In 1856 he was appointed chief cantor in Budapest, where he conducted services in the Sulzer style, with a large choir and set psalms and prayers to music for solo and choir. His collection of Jewish synagogue songs "Izraelita vallasos enekek" (1875), was used in synagogues of most Hungarian communities. From 1883 to 1897 he edited the magazine "Ungarische Israelitische Kultusbeamtenzeitung" in which he published articles on cantorial music.

Friedmann served as vice president of the Jewish Teachers Association. He was awarded a Golden Cross for his cultural activities and achievements. Mor Friedmann died in Budapest.

David Zvi Pinkas (1895-1952), Zionist leader and Israel politician, born in Sopron, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), into a religious Zionist family. The family moved to Vienna when he was a child. He became active in the Mizrachi Zionist movement and represented it as a delegate at the 13th Zionist Congress. In 1925 Pinkas settled in Eretz Israel, became the manager of the Mizrachi Bank, and, in 1932, was elected to the Tel Aviv municipal council, heading its Education Department from 1935. He was also a Mizrachi representative to the Asefat ha-Nivharim and the Va’ad Le’ummi, becoming treasurer and director of its department of Religious Communities and the Rabbinate. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he was elected to the First Knesset on behalf of the United  Religious Front, and after the elections to the Second Knesset, in October 1951, he was appointed minister of transportation. In this capacity he regulated the austerity measures for fuel consumption and stipulated that all vehicles should not be driven two days a week, and that one of these days should be Saturday (the Sabbath). This regulation aroused sharp protest from extreme circles opposing “religious coercion.”

Rudolph Schildkraut (1862-1930), film and theater actor, born in Istanbul, Turkey (then Constantinople, Ottoman Empire). He grew up in Braila, Romania, but later moved to Vienna, Austria, where he became an actor. He started his career at the theater in Sopron, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary) and continued to appear there until 1985 when he received his first important role at the theater in Krems, Austria. He was hired by the Raimund Theater in Vienna in 1893 and in 1898 he moved to Karl Theater. His career continued to flourish and in 1900 he began acting at the Theater of Hamburg, Germany, and after 1905 he became an outstanding actor of Max Reinhard's theater company in Berlin. During his years in Berlin, Schildkraut served as chairman of the association for the "promotion of Jewish art”.

In addition to his career as a theater actor, Schildkraut became a film actor during the silent movie era. He was cast in several German made dramas. His first appearance was in Der Shylock von Krakau ("The Shylock of Krakow") produced in 1913 and his last appearance in a German-language film was in Theodor Herzl, der Bannerträger des jüdischen Volkes ("Theodor Herzl, Standard-Bearer of the Jewish People"), a biography of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. In 1920 he immigrated to the United States and two years later he began acting in English. In 1925 he founded his own Jewish theater in New York while at the same time he continued to appear in silent movies. His performance as the high priest Caiaphas in The King of Kings epic biblical drama of 1927 earned him celebrity with the American public. Throughout his career he appeared in over twenty five silent movies,