Obituary

In Memoriam: Professor Egon Mayer

The staff of Holocaust and Genocide Studies reports with great sadness the passing of Prof. Egon Mayer on January 30, 2004, at the age of 59. A distinguished sociologist, Mayer was recognized as one of the leading chroniclers of American Jewry. His most significant and influential work dealt with the complex issues surrounding interfaith marriage and families.

Mayer conducted extensive research focusing on the experiences of a group of Hungarian Jews sent to Bergen-Belsen and then transported to Switzerland. It was a subject of historical and family interest for him. Mayer was born in Switzerland in 1944, shortly after his parents were rescued from Bergen-Belsen. Rudolf Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew, had negotiated with the Nazis for their release (along with that of 1,682 other Jews). After the Holocaust, Kasztner's actions were questioned by those who felt that he should not have dealt with the Nazis, and in 1957 he was murdered in Israel by political extremists. Mayer established a website (http://KasztnerMemorial.com/) that chronicles Kasztner's work through interviews and stories of those he saved.

After the war, Mayer and his family returned to Budapest, where he was raised until his family immigrated to the United States during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Mayer studied at Brooklyn College and the New School for Social Research, and received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1975.

As both a professor and chairman of the department of sociology at Brooklyn College, Mayer spent the greater part of his career examining the demographic and religious practices of American Jews. His work includes Love & Tradition: Marriage Between Jews & Christians (1985) and From Suburb to Shtetl: The Jews of Boro Park (1979). In 1988, Mayer became the founding director of the Jewish Outreach Institute in New York, a non-profit organization that helps interfaith families integrate into the Jewish community.