Fatuska János – Fülöp Éva Mária – ifj. Gyuszi László (szerk.): Annales Tataienses II. A mezőváros, mint uradalmi központ. Mecénás Közalapítvány. Tata, 2001.

Ifj. Gyüszi László: Zsidóság az Eszterházy család tatai uradalmában

Jewish people in the Eszterházy-domain László Gyuszi, Jr. The first part of this essay studies the settlement of the Jews in Tata. According to some data Jewish people lived in Tata even in the 13th century. As in the 16th century the Turkish wars had begun Tata become deserted, and so did the Jews move away. After the war period new settlers had come almost immediately to Tata and to its surroundings. After the year of 1711 the resettlement in Tata was on its way again. The resettling Jews came mainly from German, Czech, Moravian territories together with new settlers. In the domain of Tata there had been sweeping changes in the Jews' lives from 1727, when the Eszterházys came into its possession. By the middle of the 18th century a considerable number of Jewish people had lived in the market-towns, Tata and Tóváros. The contracts, which had been made between the Eszterházys of Tata and the Jews of the mentioned market-towns, were to restore the mutual confidence and the life of the community. The first known contract was made in 1758. Studying the similar contracts, which were made in the 17th and 18th centuries in Hungary, two base types of the landlords' defence can be distinguished. On one hand the defence of communities that had obtained certain privileges on the domains of the country's richest landlords (e.g. the Pálffy-, Esterházy-, Zichy-domains). On the other hand contracts had been made not only between the landlord and the settlement but also between the landowner and the individuals or the families that lived on the estates of smaller landowners (where relatively few Jewish people lived). The Jews' rights, duties, conditions of military service, trade affairs, restictedly free rights for removal had been regulated by decrees and laws during the Habsburgs' reign. By the beginning of the 19th century the position of the Jews in Hungary and so in Tata had become settled. After the revolution and war of independence of 1848/49 the Jewish communities met the revenge as well. Withdrawing the political rights after 1849 put an end to the already remaining common authority of the Jewish communities. From the second half of the 1850s the signs of détente appeared again, the Jews' civil affairs were regulated by imperial and ministerial acts. They encouraged the initiation of the Jewish capital to the trade and industry. While on the field of economy their rights increased, on the field of politics, uncertainty had appeared until the XVII. act of the year 1867 exempted all the doubts about the Israelites' emancipation. Consequently, what role did the Jews play in the life of the Tata-domain? As a summary two statements are coming below: they had given a hand to the economic uprising, they were the first to carry out a kind of revolution in trade that had started up an agricultural revolution as a second step, they had devoted all their efforts to modernise the country and their homeland. 58