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  • The Magnate–Jewish SymbiosisHungarian and Polish Variations on a Theme
  • Howard Lupovitch (bio)

Writing in 1927, Hungarian Jewish author Lajos Hatvany described, in his autobiographical novel Gentlemen and People, the angst of Hermann Bondy over whether or not the Blaus, a noble couple who had been invited to his wedding, would show up:

Would Gusztáv Blau come? Would he bring his wife? Certainly the Blaus had accepted the invitation on paper and were present at the ceremony in the synagogue…. But these superior people had not deigned to mingle with the crowds who had rushed to greet the bridal pair. They had hurried away…. But Bondy's thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door and the entrance of little Gusztáv Blau in person. In he stumbled, smiling and clean-shaven, with his side whiskers and his diplomat's face…. All the guests were then presented in turn to the Blaus, who stood in the centre of the hall like royalty. The panting ladies from the provinces … were lost in admiration of Frau Blau's gigantic ear-rings and her collar of pearls the size of hazelnuts. And that the wealthy banker's wife should be so kind with it all—a real lady! … Indeed, you could see from her whole manner that she had been brought up in Pest…. Now the Bondys would be able to say they had been admitted to the leading circles in Pest.1

This comic image of Jews fawning over the arrival and attention of a noble and his wife is a common theme in Jewish literature, no less than in the actual relationship between Jews and nobles. Particularly in Poland and Hungary, which had the highest proportion of nobles in Europe, noble patronage was a critical part of Jewish life.

Unusual in the above story, though, is the fact that the noble family are Jewish. This underscores a central difference between noble–Jewish relations in Hungary and in Poland. In numerous European countries, and especially in Poland and Hungary, Jews forged a stable working relationship with nobles and, especially, with the magnates with whom they did business. In Hungary, though, this relationship progressed further than anywhere else, epitomized by the ennoblement of more than 300 Jewish families during the dual monarchy from 1867 to the end of the First World War. [End Page 31]

The ennoblement of Jews—many of whom were unconverted—is a commonplace of Hungarian Jewish history. Consider, for example, how casually this fact is reported in a standard reference work like the Hungarian Jewish Encyclopaedia, published in 1929. There, the list of ennobled Jewish families is preceded by the succinct statement: 'Following emancipation, many within Hungarian Jewry obtained Hungarian nobility, acknowledging their excellence in the cultural, economic, and at times political sphere.'2

Yet in retrospect, the unparalleled nature of this development, as well as its origins and dynamics, warrants a closer look, more specifically with respect to a number of questions. Given the similarities between the demographic and occupational patterns of Hungarian and Polish Jewry and a similarly decisive importance of noble–Jewish relations, why were so many Jews in Hungary ennobled and so few in Poland or, for that matter, anywhere else? More broadly, what did it mean to be an ennobled Jew in Hungary? Was there a substantive difference between a Jewish noble and a Jewish notable and between a Jewish noble and a non-Jewish noble? The answers to these questions lie in the similarities and differences of noble–Jewish relations in Poland and Hungary.

As elsewhere in eastern Europe, noble–Jewish relations in Hungary and Poland primarily meant magnate–Jewish relations. These relationships had similar beginnings, each a variation on the triangular relationship between Jews, Crown, and nobility. In the absence of a powerful centralized state, Jews turned to local magnates as protectors and commercial partners. The relationships began as a series of commercial connections between individual Jews and a magnate benefactor.

These were asymmetrical but vital partnerships. By the end of the sixteenth century magnates in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth regarded Jews as the most reliable and profitable of business partners and financial agents. In Hungary, Jews superseded...

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