Magyar Zsidó Levéltár
Description by Zoltán Vagi
The documents have been in the possession of the Jewish community since their creation.
The fond contains the records of the Pest Israelite Congregation. Its elements with relevance to the history of antisemitism and the Holocaust range from 1919 to 1945 and include: records of the Legal Aid Office documenting antisemitic atrocities in 1919-1921; personal papers of President of the Jewish Council Samu Stern; records of aid organizations and campaigns, such as the Welfare Bureau of Hungarian Israelites, the Welfare Bureau of Pest Israelites, the Veteran Committee of the National Israelite Offices and the National Hungarian Jewish Aid Action regarding the aid and relief of Jews suffering from the economic and legal consequences of the anti-Jewish legislation, including Jewish refugees escaping to Hungary from Nazi and Nazi-controlled Europe (reports, correspondence, notes, financial documentation, grey material); and documents regarding the safekeeping of the Pest Jewish Congregation’s archives and liturgical objects (1943). As part of the Jewish Council’s bureaucracy, the administration of the Pest Israelite Congregation created documents regarding the confiscations by the German and Hungarian authorities; supply of various Jewish institutions; aid and support of labor servicemen; and interpretation and implementation of the antisemitic decrees.
The fond consists of 13 organic sub-fonds following the basic administrative structure of the Congregation. The sub-fonds are further divided.
Pesti Izraelita Hitközség iratai
II. Pesti Izraelita Hitközség iratai
Ca. 50 liner meters
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum RG-39.013M
The Pest Israelite Congregation was traditionally the largest and most affluent Jewish community in Hungary. After the March 1944 German occupation of the country the bureaucracy of the Jewish Council was partially built on the administrative system of the Congregation. The most important unit of the Congregation incorporated into the Council was the Welfare Bureau of Hungarian Israelites that became the Council’s Social Department. Other units were not merged, but attached to the Council’s offices. These included the Cultural and Social Department, the Department of Education and Religious Education, the Liturgical Department – Office of Vital Registries, the Department of Charity, the Department of Hospitals and the Department of Foundations.