É. Apor (ed.): David Kaufmann Memorial Volume: Papers Presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference, November 29, 1999, Budapest.

APOR, Éva: Foreword

FOREWORD It was a great honour and pleasure that a number of regular visitors to the Kaufmann Collection responded positively to our suggestion of convening a small conference to commemorate the centenary of David Kaufmann's sudden and unexpected death in 1899. Our idea was that lectures by a handful of scholars representing the various aspects of his wide-ranging scholarly interests as well as some of the fields covered by his collection of manuscripts and printed books, the Kaufmann Collection, would pay tribute to the memory and achievements of this outstanding scholar, who passed away in the prime of life depriving his contemporaries and posterity of the company of an admirable man and a long series of fundamental scholarly works. Inheritor of his priceless collection of manuscripts and printed books, the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, has always regarded it its sacred duty to keep Kaufmann's memory fresh. The conference was greeted by Ernő Marosi, Member of the Presidential Board of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, József Schweitzer, Chief Rabbi of Hungary and Alfréd Schöner, Rector of the Jewish Theological Seminary and University. The participants were honoured by the presence of the last active member of the Kaufmann family, Dr. Béla Bakonyi, Kaufmann's grand-nephew, at the conference. It was a great pleasure to listen to the contributions of Benjamin Richler, Abraham David, Tamás Bíró, Ida Fröhlich, Judit Szabados, Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, Evelyn M. Cohen, Emile Schrijver (not submitted for publication), Hermann I. Schmelzer (read in absentia), Ildikó Beöthy-Kozocsa and István Ormos. The following day, on a cold, sunny morning, the participants went to Salgótarjáni street and laid a wreath of remembrance on Kaufmann's grave in snow-covered Kerepesi cemetery and Chief Rabbi Schweitzer offered a prayer. They also paid a visit to the grave of Mrs. Kaufmann. Éva Apor Head of the Oriental Collection 9