קהילת יהודי קישווארדה

Lipot Vadasz (1861-1924), lawyer and politician, born in Kisvarda, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He practiced law for a short time, and in 1910 became a deputy in the lower house of the Hungarian parliament. In 1913 he was appointed undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Justice and was a close adviser of Count Stephan Tisza, the "strong man" of Hungary. Vadasz was one of the more prominent orators in the Hungarian parliament. During World War I he was responsible for restrictive wartime legislation and the law on parliamentary prerogatives became known as "Lex Vadasz." He also collaborated in the preparation of a new Hungarian civil code.

Tisza's failure to obtain public support during the war led Vadasz to retire from public life and return to private practice. He was active in Jewish communal affairs and was president of the Hungarian Jewish Literary Society. Vadasz's principal speeches were posthumously published under the title Vadasz Lipot Beszedei ("Speaches of Lipot Vadasz", 1925).

Dov Gruner (1912-1947), underground fighter, born in Kisvarda, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). He received yeshiva and technical training and in 1940 settled in the Land of Israel. After working for some time with Betar labor forces, he joined the British army with which he served for five years including two in the Jewish Brigade, fighting in Italy. On his release from the army he joined the Irgun Tsevai Leummi. Gruner was captured by the British while participating in a raid on a police station in Ramat Gan. Condemned to death, many efforts were made to save him, but he was executed.

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.

Jozsef Patai (1882-1953), Hungarian and Hebrew poet, translator, and editor, born in Gyongyospata, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). After finishing elementary school he studied at the yeshivas of Kisvarda, Satoraljaujhely, Huszt, Nyitra and Szatmar. He graduated from high school at Nyitra and in 1907 received his degree of doctor of philosophy at the University of Budapest. For one year he studied at the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary.

From 1908 to 1919 he taught at a Budapest municipal high school, and contributed to the Hungarian Jewish weekly "Egyenloseg", which opposed Zionism. He published a Hebrew verse collection, "Sha'ashu'ei Alumim" ("The Pleasures of Youth,"1902), and two anthologies of Hungarian poetry "Babilon vizein" ("By the Waters of Babylon", 1906) and "Szulamit latod a langot?" ("Shulamit, Do You See the Flame?", 1919). Following research in the archives at the Oxford he published many unknown poems of medieval Jewish poets in various Jewish periodicals. A selection of his poems also appeared in English (1920). He published Hungarian versions of the Hebrew poetry of many periuds of time, his translations eventually appearing in five volumes entitled "Heber koltok" ("Hebrew Poets", 1910-12; 1921?). Three of his most important works were his volumes of early recollections, "A kozepso kapu" ("The Middle Gate", 1927); "A foltamado Szentfold" ("The Holy Land Restored", 1926), on his first visit to Palestine; and his biography of Theodor Herzl (1931; "Star over Jordan", 1946).

Patai founded the Magyar Zsido Konyvtar ("Hungarian Jewish Library" - a popular series) and edited the Hungarian Jewish "Almanac". In 1911 he founded the Zionist monthly M"ult es Jovo", which he edited for 27 years. By publishing good translations of major Jewish writers from many countries, he helped to imbue Hungarian Jewish intellectuals with an appreciation for Jewish literature, art, and thought. Patai also helped to combat the anti-Zionists in Hungary when he and some associates founded the "Magyar Zsidok Pro Palestina Szovetsege" ("The League of Hungarian Jews for Palestine"), and by organizing annual visits to Erez Israel.

In 1938 Patai emigrated to Palestine. At first he lived in Jerusalem, but later settled in Givatayim. His subsequent publications include the three-volume selection of his writings Mivhar Kitvei Yosef Patai (1943); and a volume based on his lectures at the Hebrew University ("Mi-Sefunei ha-Shirah", 1939).