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 the Day of Atonement in 1901, he writes: "I shall dispose of my library separately. Among my documents will be found my autobiographical notes up to 1900. They should be examined by my wife and child and those intimate friends whom they deem worthy. I leave it to their discretion whether they wish to make public these leaves which were written with my own heart's blood". 15 9 It is almost impossible to with Max Herz Pasha in the present volume.) This circumstance namely that she disposed of Goldziher's Nachlass - and the way Goldziher's library was sold seem to imply that there was no valid will at Goldziher's death. At the same time it is difficult to believe that Goldziher died without having disposed of his library, correspondence etc, while this question had already occupied him twenty years earlier. He did not die unexpectedly, he was preparing himself for death. We know, for instance, that feeling that death was near he instructed the members of his family himself that Psalm xxiii should be recited at his bier both in Hebrew and in Péchi Simon's (d. 1642) Hungarian translation. Akadémiai Értesítő 33 (1922), 66-67 ('Nekrológok' [Obituaries], I); Immánuel Löw, 'Goldziher Ignác', in: Id., Száz beszéd..., 299. On the other hand, we have no reason to suppose that his wife and son would have acted against his will. The oral tradition of the profession in I lungary has it that Goldziher always wanted that his library should go to the Hungarian Academy after his death. In conformity with her husband's will - it is said Mrs. Goldziher offered it to the Academy after Goldziher's death but asked for an annuity in exchange. The Academy declined the offer, partly for shortage of money and partly out of short-sightedness, so she offered it for sale and sold it to the highest bidder. It is true that the Academy was in straitened circumstances at the time. There is no document in the Academy Archives to confirm this tradition. A participant of the events recalled later that soon after Goldziher's death a representative of the Hungarian Government had suggested that the family present his library to the Hungarian State, as an act of testimony of patriotism. An alternative proposal was that it should be acquired for the Hungarian State by a group of wealthy Jews in Budapest. Cf. Israel Cohen, 'The Goldziher Library ", in: Id., Travels in Jewry, New York 1953, 183. It is difficult to say whether it was in conformity with Goldziher's intentions or not that his library went to Jerusalem. In any case, this possibility docs not seem to have emerged during his lifetime. Goldziher was a devout Jew but no Zionist. He considered himself a Hungarian by nationality and a Jew by religion. In 1889 he wrote in a letter to József Bánóczi (1849-1926): "Judaism is a religion, not an ethnographic concept. As far as my national affiliation is concerned I am a Hungarian from Transdanubia, a Jew by religion. When I left Jerusalem for Hungary I said I was coming home. Man is a result of historical circumstances, his character is determined by the circumstances and not by his cranial index. Heller, 'Goldziher Ignác emlékezete'..., 25. Translation from the Hungarian. It is also characteristic of Goldziher's Hungarian nationalism, which was in accordance with contemporary trends in a considerable section of Hungarian Jewry, that during a long stay in Miskolc in 1867 he encouraged the local Jewish youth to found a national cultural society [eines nationalen Kulturvereins ] and held high-sounding speeches himself to initiate this project. Goldziher, Tagebuch..., 31. National can only refer here to the Hungarian nation. For another proof of Goldziher's Hungarian sentiments see also my article on Goldziher's correspondence with Max Herz Pasha in the present volume (n. 116). The question is, however, whether the sad experiences of the last years of his life, namely the emergence of antisemitic trends in Hungarian public life, have modified his sentiments or not. 237
