A Historical and Archival Guide to Székesfehérvár (Székesfehérvár, 2003)

A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR

settlement gave rise to a vehement and long debate; the Commercial Society of Székesfehérvár protested the most as the majority of the Israelites were engaged in business. Soon after they had established their parish, they opened a private school for boys with the rabbi as the teacher. An outstanding leader of the community from the first years was Mayer Zipser rabbi, whose progressive way of thinking lead the parish to split up. The minority being unable to stop the reforms of the progressionists founded the orthodox-party in 1861. The progressionists and the orthodoxes built their synagogues in 1

862 and in 1870 respectively. The Israelite community flourished in the last decade of the 19

th century. Following this, especially after 1910, more and more of them moved away, mainly to Budapest. The boys school founded in 1843 was open until the splitting up of the community, then two co-educated elementary schools were established but they closed in 1877. For a longer period neither of the communities maintained elementary schools. The new school was inaugurated in September 1889. Due to the anti-Jewish laws in the 1941-42 school year the school became a 5-grade school, as Israelite students were not allowed to attend higher education in grammar schools. The Evangelical Church was established in the 1 850s. From 1860 to 1 869 it functioned as affiliated church of Várpalota. They built a meeting-house in 1873. The growing community was ready to offer an assistant-minister post in 1928. The new Evangelical church was built in 1932 by Gyula Sandy, teacher of the University of Technical Sciences. The number of church members increased quickly; by the end of the 19

th and by the early 20

th century it became the third largest denomination of the town. * 1848-49 were decisive years for the town. The events of 15 March 1848 became known in the following days, public meetings were held and the national guard was arranged. The new local government was set up after the municipal elections in May. The parliamentary elections were brought about with similarly high interest, and count István Batthyány was given mandate.