Seite - 318 - in Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938 - Akkulturation - Antisemitismus - Zionismus

1 Michael Laurence Miller students participated in the Jewish Student Aid Action in Vienna (Zsidó Főiskolai Hallgatók segítő akciója Bécsben), which assembled each year in December to discuss ways to “alleviate their poverty and their privation” and to put an end to “the hor- rible nightmare.” 9 In 1924, the students expressed their appreciation for the sup- port, however minimal, in the fight against “the allied armies of Hatred,” and in the struggle for “our present lives and for Hungarian Jewry’s future.” 0 The Hungarian government did not entirely neglect its Jewish citizens studying in Vienna. Count Kuno Klebelsberg, who was appointed Minister of Religion and Education in 1922, viewed Hungarian students and scholars as cultural diplomats, who could boost Hungary’s reputation in the capitals of Central and Western Europe. As he said in a 1925 speech, “Following the disarmament of Hungary at Trianon, the cultural portfolio has become the homeland defense portfolio as well. […] Today, the Hungarian motherland cannot be preserved by the sword, but rather by culture, and this will again make it great.” Not surprisingly, Klebelsberg’s policies for ending Hungary’s cultural isolation did not assign a central role to Jewish students and schol- ars. Very few Jews received state scholarships to study abroad in the 1920s and 1930s, but there were a few exceptions. Between 1926 and 1938, six Hungarian Jews received state scholarships to do research in Vienna, primarily at the Count Kuno Klebelsberg Institute for Hungarian History. For many of the Hungarian Jewish students in Vienna, moral support from their native land was almost as important as financial support. As already mentioned, Rabbi Simon Hevesi met with Hungarian Jewish students during his brief sojourn in Vienna ; so did Emil Pikler, a Jewish deputy in the Hungarian parliament, who sought out “the poor Jewish students who had been chased from their land of birth.” A So- “A bécsi magyar zsidó diákok levele Szabolcsi Lajoshoz,” Egyenlőség, December 20, 1924, p. 17. 0 Ibid. “A Trianoni béke következtében lefegyverzett Magyarországon a kultusztárca voltaképpen honvédelmi tárca is … A magyar hazát ma elsősorban nem a kard, hanem a kultúra tarthatja meg, és teheti ismét naggyá.” Kuno Klebelsberg, Klebelsberg Kuno beszédei, cikkei és törvényjavaslatai : 1916–1926, Budapest : 1927, p. 516. Dr. Emma Lederer and Dr. Eszter Waldapfel received state scholarships to study in Vienna in 1931/32 ; Dr. Bence Szabolcsi received a state scholarship to do research at the Graf Klebelsburg Kuno Institut für Ungarische Geschichtsforschung in Wien in 1932/33 ; Dr. Gyula Mérei received this scholarship in 1934/35, Erzsébet Zsuzsanna Kulcsár in 1936/37, and Zsigmond Telegi in 1937/38. See A külföldi Magyar intézetek működése és a magas műveltség célját szolgáló ösztöndíjak az … tanévben, Budapest 1927– 1938. Viktor Goldschmidt, “Bécsi level,” Egyenlőség, March 31, 1923, p. 14. On Pikler, see Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (Budapest, 1929), 709. Pikler also attacked the numerus clausus law in A Magyar Zsidóság Alma- nachja : Numerus Clausus, Budapest, [1925], p. 37.