É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

ORMOS, István: Goldziher's Mother Tongue: A Contribution to the Study of the Language Situation in Hungary in the Nineteenth Century

GOLDZIHER'S MOTHER TONGUE 1861.

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8 (A newly passed law made this change obligatory and it was effected simultaneously in many schools in Hungary.)"

1

9 From i860 Jewish birth registers were kept in Hungarian, and office work was also done in Hungarian. Sermons in Hungarian became frequent after 1867. At the same time it must be noted that Székesfehérvár became one of the centres of the battle between the conservatives (the Orthodoxy) and the reformers (the Neology) in the Jewish community, a battle which made itself felt all over Hungary at this period, with the confrontation reaching its climax between 1858 and 1861 - from 1861 on there were two separate communities in Székesfehérvár and the Orthodox community had its own synagogue."" One of the main issues in this confrontation affected the use of language: in Székesfehérvár at the big autumn market of 1861, for example, the Orthodox party distributed 1 000 leaflets complaining that "the Hungarian party of Jews (a zsidók magvai• pártja

)" called them "German Jews" and "traitors ".

1

1' Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the community organized a thanksgiving service on 4 March to celebrate the restoration of Hungarian statehood, and in the absence of a local rabbi invited Chief Rabbi Sámuel Kohn from Pest to officiate in the new synagogue of the reform party. (Kohn had preached the first Hungarian sermon in Pest in the preceding year.)"

2 This first sermon preached in Hungarian was such an overwhelming success that the community decided to 10

8 Steinherz, A székesfehérvári zsidók..., 35; István Surányi, 'A székesfehérvári Goldziher Ignác Izraelita Elemi Népiskola története 1842-1943' [The History of the Tgnaz Goldziher' Israelite Elementary School in Székesfehérvár 1842-1943], in: A zsidók Fejéimegyében 1688-1867 címmel 1986. szeptember 23-án Székesfehérváron tartott konferencia előadásai [Lectures Delivered at the Conference Held at Székesfehérvár on 23 September 1986 Under the Title «Jews in Fejér County 1688-1867»]. Ed. Gábor Farkas (A Fejér megyei Levéltár Közleményei, 1989, n" 4 ), Székesfehérvár 1989, 58-59; Felkai, Zsidó iskolázás.... 40. Incidentally, the Imperial constitution "October Diploma [Oktoberdiplom]

". which Emperor Franz Joseph I felt compelled to promulgate on 20 October i860, marked an end of the efforts at centralization and accorded a series of rights to the various countries constituting the Habsburg Empire. Since the use of Hungarian was now permitted, it replaced German in a number of areas in Hungary. On its effect on Jewish schools in Hungary see Aron Moskovits, Jewish Education in Hungary (1848-1948), Philadelphia-New York 1964.45-60. '"" Nordau, Erinnerungen..., 19. 11

0 Farkas, Nemzetiségi..., 262-263; Katz, Ha-qera'

.... 72-80 (of the Hungarian translation; the end of Part II, Chapter 5); Goldziher, Tagebuch..., 21-22; Pietsch, Reform és ortodoxia..., 58-59. 11

1 Farkas, Zsidók letelepedése.... 48.; Steinherz, A székesfehérvári zsidók..., 41. Our sources do not mention the language of the leaflet but judging from the situation and its contents one would assume that it was written both in Hungarian and German. 11

2 See note 45 and the corresponding paragraph above. 225