Page - 319 - in Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938 - Akkulturation - Antisemitismus - Zionismus

From White Terror to Red Vienna 1 cial Democrat, Pikler insisted that he came to the students “not as a Jew before Jews, but as a human being before fellow human beings […]” In a similar vein, the Central Student Aid Committee did not limit itself to finan- cial aid, but also sought to provide other kinds of support for Hungarian Jewish stu- dents abroad. In the words of one report, “The Committee does everything to ensure that the emigrant students do not become detached from Magyardom ; it supports their organizations, in which Magyar students from the seceded territories also play an active role ; moreover, even Christian students studying abroad join the Magyar clubs [established] by our [Jewish] students.” If the report of the Committee can be taken at face value, the Hungarian Jew- ish student colonies succeeded in preserving a Hungarian national identity, rooted in cultural-linguistic solidarity and transcending confessional and racial categories. However, the Committee’s report must be taken with a grain of salt, especially when one considers the many counter-examples, such as the exclusion of Jewish students from the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, which was organized by the (non-Jewish) Hungarian club in Graz, Austria. Jewish Solidarity In Vienna, Hungarian Jews often founded themselves grouped together with fellow Jews, rather than with fellow Hungarians. Jewish student organizations, such as Judäa did not distinguish between Ostjude and Westjude the way that Hungarian student organizations increasingly distinguished between Christian and Jew. Founded in Feb- ruary 1919, Judäa was open to “anyone belonging to the Jewish race,” and this organi- zation aimed to provide assistance and support to the impoverished, malnourished and persecuted Jewish students in Vienna. As a 1923 report to European Student Relief noted : “It was the Jewish student in the first place who was faced with unbearable mis- ery. Not being in a good financial position, he is often persecuted for political reasons, becomes the victim of various theories on races and is hunted from one University to another. In most cases he is submitted to the decisions of an artificially constructed numerus clausus and he is therefore justified in describing his position as hopeless.” A Magyar Zsidóság Almanachja : Numerus Clausus, Budapest, [1925], p. 146. “A gráci magyar zsidó diákok nem ünnepelhették március tizenötödikét,” Egyenlőség, March 24, 1928, p. 6. “Report of the Jüdischer Hochschulausschuss, Vienna Executive Committee of the general union of Jewish students of Austria ‘Judäa’, submitted at the conference of the European Student Relief, held in Parad [Hungary, 1923],” World’s Student Christian Federation (WSCF) Archive, Yale Divinity School, Group 46, Box 221, Folder 2303.