[Pages 454-455]

Cegled

A town in the Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun district,
73 kilometers from Budapest. The population in 1941 was 38,872.

Jewish Population

The first seven Jewish families were settled in Cegled during the first half of the nineteenth century. A short time after they arrived, Cegled became the organizational center of the rebels fighting the Hapsburg regime. This became an open rebellion in 1848. After the rebels were suppressed, the number of Jews there increased quickly. Many Jews in the vicinity moved into the town.

The majority of Cegled Jews made its living through trade, but a few were artisans or professionals. In 1929 there were: 6 farmers, 4 teachers, 190 merchants, 12 lawyers, 6 doctors, 7 government clerks, 15 private clerks, 12 artisans, an engineer, 4 laborers, and about 30 others.

The community was organized in 1850 by the confirmation of the emperor's representative in Buda. In 1869 the community defined itself as Neolog. The town's Jewish organizations were: a Hevra Kadisha, established in 1855, Malbish Arumim, a fund which supplied clothes to the poor (1864), a Women's Association (1872), Bikur Holim, which gave medical help to the community (1886), and a Young Women's Association (1908).

A synagogue was opened in 1856 in a rented house. After a few a years the first synagogue was built. In 1905 a larger, more elaborate synagogue was erected.

Of the three local rabbis, we shall mention Dr. Josef Feldman, (188-1932), the author of Rabbi Hananel, Hayav u Poalo (Budapest 1886), and Dr. Josef Klein (1933-1944), who lost his life in the Holocaust.

The school was established at the end of the nineteenth century and was open until the Holocaust, although the number of pupils diminished during its last years. The pupils were educated in a National-Hungarian spirit. Jewish subjects were compacted into just reading Hebrew, so that the students could follow the prayer book. Jewish sports organizations also existed there.

Thirteen members of the community fell in the First World War, and their names were recorded on a memorial tablet that hung in the synagogue hall. Jewish veterans were not accepted as members of the Association of War Veterans.

After the First World War and during the era of the White Terror, between the years 1919-1922, there were anti-Semitic incidents and attacks in Cegled. In 1919 a Jewish doctor was murdered at night in the market by White Terror thugs. During a youth demonstration in June 1920, Jewish students were beaten bloody, and an anti-Semitic pressure group tried to force Jewish merchants to give their stores to Christian merchants. And in fact, Jewish tobacco merchants were forced to give up their licenses. A Jewish notary was threatened with force until he resigned his office. The widows of those killed in the war, and wives of Jewish invalids were expelled from the town markets, and remained without a source of income. The teachers in the high school derided the Jewish schoolgirls in front of Christian pupils. In 1921 the telephone exchange did not connect conversations to or from Jews. Hooligans threw bombs at Jewish homes, and during the regional elections at this time, Jews were physically evicted from their polling places.

After the publication of Discrimination Laws in 1938 the economic situation of Cegled Jews, was completely undermined. Licenses were cancelled, and clerks were fired from their jobs. In 1941 there were violent incidents against Jews during fiery, hate-filled demonstrations. Rocks were thrown into synagogues and stores. Young men were taken for forced labor, and shortly after that older men were also taken, especially physicians, lawyers, and wealthy Jews who aroused the jealousy of

Christian competitors. They were sent to the Ukraine, and the majority of them died there.

The Holocaust

At the beginning of May all were taken to the ghetto at Kecskemet, and at the beginning of June, they were transported to Auschwitz, except for a few men who were sent as forced labor at the last minute, and their lives were saved.

About 150 Jews, Holocaust survivors who returned to this town, renewed communal life in 1946.

  Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. Hungary     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 17 Jul 2009 by LA