Jakab Réka: Bérlőből polgár. Pápa város zsidó közösségének társadalom- és gazdaságtörténete 1748-1848 (Veszprém, 2014)
FROM TENANTRY TO BOURGEOISIE The social and economic history of the Jews of the City of Pápa 1748-1848 This book charts the integration of the Jewish population of the city of Pápa during the period of the feudal nobility in Hungary. Its primary focus is on the typical features of the social organisation of this community and on determining its role in the economic life of both the city and the Esterházy family’s local estates. A census of the city’s Jews at the dawn of the social ascendancy of the bourgeoisie in Hungary, in June 1848, records a population of 2,962; at the time, this represented 24% of the overall population of the city. The uniquely large size of the Jewish population of Pápa among the Jewish populations of market towns in Hungary generally provided the impetus for this examination of the social and economic processes that - working together - allowed the development of such a sizeable community. The starting point for the chosen period is the first appearance of Jews in Pápa, or rather the time of the creation of their independent communal organisation, which can be dated to the issuing of letters patent by the local landowner in 1748. The social changes that followed the end of Pápa’s city status and the fact that the last census of the Jewish community in Pápa took place in the same year suggested that the end date should be the year the most detailed census of the Jewish community yet was undertaken. In order to determine and analyse the demographic and social characteristics of the Jewish community in Pápa at the time of the census of 1848, it was necessary to look at the political, legal, social and economic changes that accompanied their integration in the previous hundred years. In order to familiarise ourselves with the situation of the community, it was equally important to look at the policies of the landowners and to examine the legal, social and economic environment with the city itself. Taking all this into account, as a first step towards examining the integration of the city’s Jewry, we looked at the circumstances of their initial settlement there. A deciding factor in this process was understanding the landlord’s considerations when deciding whether to grant or refuse permission to settle as well as getting an idea of the attitude of the local magistracy. We then had to examine the extent to which these impacted on the extent of Jewish settlement and the geographical distribution of the 292
