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At present time the combined population of the Moson and Bratislava communities
is 6336. The Moson (status quo) Jewish community was founded in 1851 but Jewish
families inhabited the area already several decades earlier. According to the first
record of settlers from 1802, there were already 14 Jews in Moson. These can be
found in the Roman Catholic archives. In the beginning, the Jews lived in what is
today known as Ostermayer Street. This is precisely the reason why the street was
called Jew Street for a long time. In 1851 they began to properly record the
community's register. On the first page of the register, one can find the hand
written entries in German of Ferenc Haidenvolf the parish priest. According to an
extraordinarily interesting introduction, the priest was entrusted with the record
keeping of the births, marriages and deaths of the Jewish community of Moson because,
writes the priest:
"Ich ehre und hochachte besonders dieses schöne und edle Vertrauen" [I honor and
respect especially this noble trust]. Therefore, I accept to record the register of
the Moson Jewish community with the greatest honor." It is exceptional and almost a
unique case that a Catholic priest should keep records of a Jewish community's
register. The Moson registers which Haidenvolf, the priest, properly recorded until
his death in 1857, in any case, interestingly document the interdenominational
tolerance and noble liberalism of the Church of Moson. The Moson Jewish community's
first minutes of a meeting were recorded on March 06, 1861. According to this, under
the presidency of Zsigmond Hercel, school board members were chosen and votes were
cast for the taxes to be collected as income for the upkeep of the school. The
Jewish school existed only until 1890; after that the Jewish children attended the
public school where it was agreed upon that the Jewish community had the right to
appoint one teacher. This Jewish teacher taught the religious subjects. At first,
the synagogue, the residences of the employees of the Jewish community, as well as
the mikveh, were situated on the so called Kiralydomb which was rented from Prince
(Duke) Albrecht's estate, still existing today. In 1862, the Jewish community
purchased land and according to the design of Karoly Bendi, construction of the
synagogue was begun. The synagogue, with an upper gallery, was financed through
contributions of 4310 forint per member who bought their seats as well as by the
Chevra Kaddisha and other forms of Tzedaka. The synagogue was inaugurated by I.
Hildesheimer, Rabbi of Kismarton (Eisenstadt), and later rector of the Berlin
Seminary. The first Rabbi was David Pollak who later became the school principal.
His successor was H.L. Reich whose occasional speeches had appeared in Moson. After
his brief stay, Gyula Löwinger became the spiritual leader of the community over
the next forty years. From 1920-1926, Herman Strausz was the Rabbi. Since 1926,
the positions of rabbi and chief cantor have been vacant. Past presidents. Zsigmond
Hercl, Adolf Haan, Jakab Stadler, Elek Hoffner and current president, Pal Scheiber
received a lot of merit for their leadership and the Jewish community's development.
The Jewish community's institutions consisted of: a Chevra Kaddisha whose president
was Lipot Friedmann, a sisterhood, headed by Mrs. Elek Hoffner, and a Talmud Torah
led by Lipot Friedmann. The following members from the Jewish community played a
role in the community at large: Elek Hoffner (deceased), honorary chief district
prosecutor, David Kiss chief technical advisor (deceased), Mor Hirschfeld, (retired)
postmaster, Samu Rosenstein, (retired) supervisor of the Hungarian State Railways,
Soma Galosi, (retired) economic advisor, (wrote the book entitled Souvenirs of
Moson), Gyula Weisz, honorary chief district physician, Albin Vamos, district court
judge and Mor Öszterreicher, treasury advisor. As far as larger industry is
concerned, Ignac Fröhlich was the proprietor of a ribbon factory which employed 300
workers. Henrik Mauthner farmed on his own 2000 hectares of land, while Karoly
Rosinger as well as the firm Kalman and Kohn farmed on rented land. The Jewish
community's prominent members were: Lipot Fischer. Chief Rabbi of Versec, and
Karoly [Carl] Flesch, the world renown violinist, presently residing in Berlin. The
community functions with [a budget of] 10,570 Pengös from which they contribute a
large sum to social and philanthropic causes. The following localities belong to
Jewish community's register: Magyaróvár, Kalnok, Halaszi, Puski, Darno, Zseli, Arak,
Kisbodak, Lipot, Level, Horvatkimle, Magyarkimle, Lebeny, Mosonszentmiklos,
Mosonszentjanos, Mosonszentpeter and Pusztasomorja. The community consists of 700
individuals, 190 families; 203 people are taxpayers. According to occupation, there
are: 5 wholesalers, 14 farmers, 11 freelancers, 1 teacher, 1 soldier, 84 merchants,
8 employees, 4 lawyers, 9 civil servants, 2 laborers, 8 doctors, 11 clerks (public
sector), 30 tradesmen, 1 engineer, 10 rentiers, and 5 others. During the [1st] world
war, the Jewish community supported a temporary hospital. From its members, 96
joined the army and 18 of them were killed. The leaders of today's Jewish community
are:
Pal Scheiber president, Adolf Spitzer vice-president, Ede Grün secretary,
Gusztav Löwin treasurer, Ignac Fischer and Jozsef Braun synagogue officials, Lajos
Weisz lawyer, Henrik Hirn public school principal and religious studies teacher. The
Jewish community's committee members are: Soma Galosi who is in charge of the
register, Armin Bach, Jakab Breiner, Ede Hoffmann, Adolf Sussmann and Arpad Oesterreicher.
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