קהילת יהודי פאפה

Lajos Bruck (1846-1910), painter, born in Papa, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire), elder brother of the painter Miksa Bruck. At the age of 15 he came to Budapest, where he studied under various artists. In 1865 he was admitted at the Vienna Academy and studied there under Geiger and Wurzinger. In 1869, a governmental stipend enabled him to go to Venice, Italy, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Art under Molmenti. He first came to public notice with his painting "Before the Rialto Bridge". After spending some time in Rome and Naples, and various cities of Germany, Holland and Belgium, he settled in Paris, France, in 1874 where for a time he worked with Mihaly Munkacsy, but remained relatively unknown. In 1886 he moved to London, England, where his talent as a portrait painter were appreciated and he was much in demand. In 1894 he returned with his family to Budapest.

In 1899, an exhibition of Hungarian painters was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was opened by Czar Nicolay II, who in appreciation awarded Bruck a knighthood. Bruck's most important paintings are "The Trip to Town" (1877), "Loneliness" (1879), "View of Budapest", "The Quartet Rehearsal" and "The Postmaster".

Dezso Korein (1870-1949), community leader, born in Papa, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). After finishing his studies he chose commerce in textile as his profession. He was for several years president of the Orthodox Jewish congregation of Szombathely. As a member of the National Central Orthodox Committee, he had influence on the policy of the organized Orthodox community of Hungary.

A member of the assembly of the city of Budapest, he urged that Jewish charitable and cultural institutions be subsidized by the city. Korein was instrumental in founding the Association of Sabbath Observers, of which he was president. He also edited the Sabbath Almanach. His articles on religious and economic topics appeared in several Hungarian periodicals, and he headed the Budapest Bikur Cholim Society for the aid of the sick. Korein managed to change payday to Wednesday instead of Saturday for the tens of thousands of workers in the workshops of Budapest.

Isaac (Isaak) Breuer (1883-1946), lawyer and leader of the German Orthodoxy, born in Papa, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), where his father, Solomon Breuer was rabbi. Breuer was taken as a child to Frankfurt am Main, where he studied in the yeshiva founded by his father. Breuer studied law and philosophy at the Universities of Strasbourg, France, and Marburg, Germany. He practiced as a lawyer and became involved in communal life, becoming a leader of Agudat Israel.

While rejecting secular Jewish nationalism, he advocated reconstruction activities in Eretz Israel. In 1936 he settled in Jerusalem where he headed the Poalei Agudat Israel movement. A prolific author, his writings developed the religious thought of his grandfather, Shimshon Rafael Hirsch. Breuer's early works were in German but after settling in the Land of Israel, wrote in Hebrew.

His publications include "Lehre, Gesetz und Nation" ("Teaching, Law, and Nation"); "Die Welt als Schoepfung und Natur" ("The World as Creation and Nature"); "Kampf um Gott" ("Fight for God"); "Das Judenproblem; Messiasspuren" ("The Jewish Problem", 1921), in opposition to political Zionism, and expressing his religious ideal of Jewish restoration. In 1939 he contributed a chapter, "Challenge to Israel," to Leo Jung's "Judaism in a Changing World".

Breuer was a member of the Kant Society

Jozsef Beke (1867-1940), engineer.

Born in Papa, Veszprem County, Hungary (then in Austria-Hungary). He became well-known as a bridge builder. From 1892 to 1920, Beke was successively chief engineer of the bridge construction department, chief technical adviser, and ministerial advisor of the Hungarian Ministry of Commerce. He was involved in the designing and building of the "Margit Bridge", "Ferenc Jozsef Bridge" and the reconstructed suspension "Chainbridge" connecting Buda with Pest, across the Danube, as well as in making of the very modern bridge at Gyor, Hungary. Before and after his retirement in 1920 he published authoritative books and articles on bridge construction, notably a book entitled "Vasbetetes betonszerkezetek" (Reinforced Structural Concrete; 1903). His articles were printed in German and American as well as Hungarian professional journals.

Samuel Krauss (1866-1948), historian, philologist and Talmudic scholar born in Ukk, western Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at Papa Yeshivah and at the Budapest rabbinical seminary and university. From 1894 to 1906 Krauss taught Bible and Hebrew at the Jewish teachers' seminary in Budapest. In 1906 he began to teach Bible, history, and liturgy at the Israelitische-Theologische Lehranstalt in Vienna, Austria. It was due to his efforts that the college did not succumb to financial difficulties after World War I. Krauss was appointed head of the seminary in 1932 and rector in 1937. Krauss founded the "Vienna Verein juedische Geschichte und Literatur", and was active in many communal institutions. During the Kristallnacht in November 1938, the Nazis destroyed his valuable library and papers, and he fled to England, joining his daughter in Cambridge, where he remained until his death.

Kraus wrote over 1,300 articles and monographs, many of them major works, ranging widely in Judaica, philology, history, Bible, Talmud, Christianity and medieval Hebrew literature. One of his early works in philology: "Griechische und Lateinische Lehnwoerter im Talmud" (2 vol., 1898-99; repr. 1964), deals with the problems of phonetics, grammar, and transcription, and also with words borrowed from other languages. He also prepared a volume of additions and corrections to A. Kohut's "Arukh" entitled "Tosefot ha-Arukh ha-Shalem" (1936, repr. 1955). Among Krauss' historical studies was "Antonius und Rabbi" (1910), in which he offered his solution to the problem of the identity of the Talmudic Antonius, the friend of Judah ha-Nasi. On the then little-known Byzantine period in Jewish history, Krauss contributed "Studien zur byzantinisch-juedischen Geschichte" (in "Jahresbericht der Israelitisch-Theologischen Lehranstalt", vol. 21, 1914). Krauss wrote on the aliyah of the Polish Hasidim in the 18th century (in "Abhandlungen … Chajes" (1933, 51-95), and on Viennese and Austrian Jewish history in "Wiener Geserah vom Jahre 1421" (1922), in "Geschichte der israelitischen Armenanstalt" (1922), and in "Joachim Edler von Popper" (1926). His "Vier Jahrtausende juedischen Palaestinas" (1922) demonstrates the unbroken record of a Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Kraus contributed to A. Kahana's edition of the Hebrew Bible, a modern commentary of Isaiah (1905). He also cooperated in the Hungarian Bible translation edited by Bacher and Banoczi, Szentiras (1898-1907). Krauss' greatest work is his "Talmudische Archeologie" (3 vol., 1910-12; repr. 1966), a classic description of every aspect of life reflected in Talmudic and Midrashic literature. A similar work in Hebrew is his unfinished "Kadmoniyyot ha-Talmud" (2 vol., 1914-23). The history of the synagogue is described in his "Synagogale Altertuemer" (1922., repr. 1966). His last work, "Korot Battei ha- Tefillah be-Israel", ed. by A. R. Malachi (1955), was an extension and continuation of this work. His "Griechen und Roemer" (in Monumenta hebraica: Monumenta Talmudica, 5 pt. 1, 1914) and "Paras ve-Romi ba-Talmud u-va-Midrashim" (1948) also deal with the talmudic period. Kraus contributed to German and English publications on Sanhedrin, Makkot and Mishna, and a Hungarian translation of the Talmudic tractate Derekh Erez. Krauss also tackled the subject of Christianity in his "Leben Jesu nach juedischen Quellen" (1902) and in several articles. His interest in Hebrew poetry of the Spanish period is reflected in his "Givat Sha'ul" (1923), and in his "Mishbezet ha-Tarshish" (1926), on Moses ibn Ezra. His "Geschichte der juedischen Aerzte" (1930) is a description of the work and status of Jewish physicians of the Middle Ages. In his "Zur Orgelfrage" (1919), Krauss expressed his conservative stance concerning the use of organs in synagogues. He contributed ahundreds of articles to the "Jewish Encyclopedia", the "Encyclopedia Judaica" (German), and the "Juedische Lexikon". He wrote biographies of his teachers Wilhelm Bacher, David Kaufmann, and Alexander Kohut.

Solomon (Shlomo Zalman) Breuer (1850-1926), rabbi, born in Pilisvörösvár, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire) into a family of German-speaking businessmen. Breuer at first studied under his maternal grandfather Rabbi Simon Wiener and then enrolled at the yeshiva of Pressburg (now Bratislava, in Slovakia), which was at the time headed by the Ktav Sofer, Rabbi Samuel Benjamin Sofer. He entered the University of Mainz, Germany, where he gained a doctorate and met some of the leaders of German orthodox Judaism.

In 1876 he was appointed rabbi of Papa in Hungary. However, in 1888 his father in law, Samson (Simshon) Raphael Hirsch died and in 1890 Breuer was chosen to succeed him as the rabbi of the Frankfurt on the Main Austrittsgemeinde (Independent) synagogue. He was involved in the activities of the representative organization of German orthodox communities and helped to establish the union of German orthodox rabbis (from which any rabbi who collaborated in communal work with Reform rabbis was excluded). An opponent of political Zionism and the concept that a Jewish state could in some way replace the need for Jewish religious practice, he was one of the founders of the Agudat Israel movement. He was president of the Freie Vereinigung [“Free Union”] for the advancement of Orthodox Judaism. In 1893 Breuer established in Frankfurt the Torah Lehranstalt Yeshiva which was modeled on the yeshivot which he had attended in Hungary. He directed the yeshiva for 36 years.

Three of his sons continued his work with Agudat Israel in Germany and then, after the WW I, in New York, USA.

Shraga Feivel Ha-Levi Horowitz (1796-1845), rabbi. From 1836 he served as "av bet din" of Paks in Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire) and from 1841 to 1845 as rabbi of Papa, Hungary. The Reform movement which was born in Germany also influenced the Jews of Hungary, causing frequent disputes between the Orthodox and the Reformers. The Orthodox circles realized the necessity to appoint strictly traditional rabbis for the benefit of Orthodox Jewry. Horowitz organized an assembly of rabbis to discuss the situation and was appointed its chairman when it assembled in Paks in 1844. It was attended by 25 rabbis, among them Judah Asad and Eliakim Goetz Schwerin of Baja. At this assembly Loeb Schwab put forward proposals for moderate reform in education and in liturgy, but he was opposed by the other rabbis, and after he and Schwerin left the meeting various resolutions proposed by Horowitz were adopted. They included the division of the Orthodox Jewish communities of Hungary into four regions, the organizing of a national assembly of rabbis, and the setting up of a national conference which would meet every three years. The assembly also discussed the problems of relations between Jews and Christians in the sphere of commerce.

On receiving authority to prepare the second convention of rabbis at Ofen, Horowitz attempted to open a dialogue with the reform Jews, for which he was rebuked by Judah Asad. As a result of the death of Horowitz in 1845, the second assembly did not take place. Horowitz was in halakhic correspondence with Moses Sofer, Judah Asad, Meir Eisenstadt, and Isaac Moses Perles, and is mentioned in their responsa. A eulogy on him appears in the "Derashot ha-Rosh" (1904) of A. Shag-Zwebner.
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Mor Ballagi (born Moritz Bloch) (1815-1891), philologist and Christian theologian, born in Inocz, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at the well known טeshivot at Nagyvarad (now Oradea, in Romania), and Papa, Hungary. While working as a teacher in Moor and Surany, he studied classical and modern languages and also mathematics. His religion being an obstacle to the obtaining of a diploma at the University of Budapest, he moved to Paris in 1839, where he took up Oriental studies. Jozsef Eotvoes, a leading Hungarian writer and statesman, was much impressed by Ballagi's pamphlet A zsidokrol (About the Jews), in which he advocated the emancipation of Hungarian Jewry, and called upon him to return to Hungary, which he did in 1840. Ballagi began a Hungarian translation of the Bible, of which, however, only the Pentateuch and Joshua appeared (Budapest, 1840-1843). Its language and his commentaries were widely praised in Hungary. In recognition he was made a member of the Hungarian Academy of Science. In 1841 he translated the Hebrew prayer book into Hungarian.

He wrote several pamphlets in favour of Hungarian independence and succeeded in enlisting the support of leading politician Count Stephen Szechenyi, who had championed the modernization of Hungarian economic, social, and intellectual life and was the leader of the moderate liberal group in the Hungarian diet, for the establishment of a Hungarian rabbinical seminary. In 1842 Ballagi went to Tuebingen, Germany, where he converted to Protestantism (1843) although he remained sympathetic to Judaism. The following year he became a lecturer at the Lyceum in Szarvas (Hungary) and in 1851 he was made professor there.

During the War of Liberation, as the revolution of 1848 was known in Hungary, he was secretary to General Goergey and subsequently was assigned to the War Department. Later he also was made professor at the Protestant Theological Institute of Pest. In 1959 he produced a Hungarian dictionary and a collection of Hungarian proverbs. He also published also a textbook of the Hebrew language (1872) and wrote a number of books on Christian subjects. He wrote in both Hungarian and German. Ballagi died in Budapest.

Adolph Aryeh Schwarz (1846-1931), rabbi, scholar and educator, born in Adasz-Tevel, near Papa, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was educated at the gymnasium of Papa, and his father, who was a rabbi, taught him Talmud. Later he studied theology at the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary in Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) and then attended the University of Vienna, Austria, where he graduated as doctor of philosophy.

After serving as chief rabbi at Karlsruhe, Germany, from 1875 to 1893, he was called to the Vienna Israelitische-Theologische Lehranstalt as its first dean, and remained in this office to the end of his life. In Karlsruhe Schwartz devoted himself to research on the Tosefta. His vast scholarly output was devoted primarily to the study of the Talmud and its methodology.

He published: Die Tosifta der Ordnung Moed. I. Der Tractat Sabbath (1879); II. Der Tractat Erubin (1882); Tosifta juxta Mischnarum Ordinum Recomposita et Commentario instructa I. Seraim. II. Chulin. (1890-1902). During his time in Vienna he concerned himself mostly with hermeneutics, publishing Die hermeneutische Analogie in der talmudischen Literatur (1897); Der hermeneutische Syllogismus in der talmudischen Literatur (1901); and Die hermeneutische Induktion in der talmudischen Literatur (1909). Other works of his include: Ueber Jacobis oppositionelle Stellung zu Kant, Fichte und Schelling (1870); Ueber das juedische Kalenderwesen (1872); Sabbatpredigten zu den Wochenabschnitten der Fuenf Buecher Moses (I-V, 1879-1883); Festpredigten fuer alle Hauptfeiertage des Jahres (1884); Predigten, Neue Folge (1892); Die Kontroverse der Schammaiten und Hilleliten, Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Hillelschule (1893); Die Frauen der Bibel. Drei Vortraage (1903); Die Erzaahlungskunst der Bibel. Zwei Vortraage (1904) and Die Mischneh-Tora (1905).

Jubilee volumes were published in honor of his seventieth (1817) and eightieth (1927) birthdays, the latter entirely in Hebrew. The Austrian state conferred upon him the title of Hofrat (Court Councillor). Schwarz died in Vienna.