History of the Jews in Hungary

Jews have a long history in the country now known as Hungary, with some records even predating the 895 AD Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin by over 600 years. An early example of punitive measures began during the reign of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1272–1290), when it was decreed that every Jew should wear a piece of red cloth. During the time of the Black Death (1349), Jews were expelled from the country. King Ladislaus II (1490–1516) burned Jews at the stake, many being executed at Nagyszombat (Trnava) in 1494, on suspicion of ritual murder. As the lord of Bösing (Pezinok) was in debt to the Jews, a blood accusation was brought against these creditors in 1529. A law promulgated by the Imperial Diet of 1645 stated that Jews were excluded from the privileges of the country, that they were unbelievers, and had no conscience. When imperial troops recaptured Buda in 1686, most Jewish residents were massacred. Their fate was not improved under the reign of Leopold's son, Charles III (1711–1740). During the reign of Queen Maria Theresa (1740–1780), the Jews were expelled from Buda (1746). Joseph II (1780–1790) wiped out the decrees that had oppressed the Jews for centuries. The emancipation of the Jews was granted by the national assembly in 1849.

List of Hungarian Jews

This is a list of Hungarian Jews. There has been a Jewish presence in today's Hungary since Roman times (bar a brief expulsion during the Black Death), long before the actual Hungarian nation. Jews fared particularly well under the Ottoman Empire, and after emancipation in 1867. At its height, the Jewish population of historical Hungary numbered more than 900,000, but the Holocaust and emigration, especially during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, has reduced that to around 100,000, most of whom live in Budapest and its suburbs.

This is a list of anyone who could be reliably described as "Hungarian" and is of significant Jewish heritage (ethnic or religious). See List of Hungarian Americans for descendents of Hungarian émigrés born in America, a significant number of whom are of Jewish ancestry.

The names are presented in the Western European convention of the given name preceding the family name, whereas in Hungary, the reverse is true, as in most Asian cultures.

Historical figures

Jews

The Jews (/dʒuːz/;Hebrew: יְהוּדִים ISO 259-3 Yehudim, Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation, while its observance varies from strict observance to complete nonobservance.

The Jews trace their ethnogenesis to the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel. The discovery of the Merneptah Stele confirms the existence of the people of Israel in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. Since then, while maintaining rule over their homeland during certain periods—such as under the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judah, the Hasmonean Dynasty, and the Herodian Kingdom—Jews also suffered various exiles and occupations from their homeland—from Ancient Egyptian Occupation of the Levant, to Assyrian Captivity and Exile, to Babylonian Captivity and Exile, to Greek Occupation and Exile, to the Roman Occupation and Exile. These events subjected Jews to slavery, pogroms, cultural assimilation, forced expulsions, genocide, and more, scattering Jews all around the world, in what is known today as the Jewish diaspora.