Riczu Zoltán: Zsidó épületek és emlékek Nyíregyházán. (A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 34. Nyíregyháza, 1992)

Jews in Nyíregyháza 1850—1871 The number of Jews in Nyíregyháza reached an impressive one thousand, a hundred and twenty eight in 1869, which exceeded 5 % of the town's population. Between 1850 and 1870, 213 people applied for a residence permit, the trade or profession of 153 of them is known to us. Group One. Leaseholders, shopkeepers, travelling agents, innkeepers, waiters, people in the forwarding business, agents, restaurant owners, constituting 82 people, 53,5 % of them whose job is known to us. Group Two. Craftsmen, constituting 40 people, who are 26,1 % of them whose job is known. Group Three. This is the category of assistants and apprentices, whose number was 20 — that is, 13 %. Group Four. Group four is the category of rabbis, doctors and teachers, whose number was 11, that is 7,1 %. Some of the outstanding personalities in this category in those days were Baruch Szamuely, Emánuel Stern, Mór Schack, József Fisch, Mór Haas and Ignác Kornstein. As from 1867 we find nine of them in the town administration as representatives. Forming the Religious Community The (religious) comuunity of the Jewish people of Nyíregyháza became independent in 1965. It had previously belonged to the district of the rabbi of Ngykálló. The first rabbi was Károly Friedmann. In the period following the National Jewish Congress in 1868-69, the Jewish population of the country gradually split into three major groups: the orthodox, the neologians and the status quo ante. The Jewish people of Nyíregyháza joined the status quo trend which triggered the resistance of the orthodox members of the community. They slowly started to separate from the rest of the members of the community. Finally they left and formed their own, orthodox community. Their rabbi was Ignác Friedmann. The orthodox community was founded in 1904. This new community soon created its own organizations and bodies (Chevva Kadisha, Bikur Chólim, Poel Cedek). The rabbi of the status quo community up to 1944 was Béla Bernstein. Salamon Wieder followed Ignác Friedmann in the post of the rabbi of the orthodox community after the death of the latter. 131