Judaism in Hungary - 1910 Census

1910 Census

According to the 1910 census, the number of Jews was 911,227, i.e. 4.99% of the 18,264,533 people living in Hungary (In addition, there were 21,231 Jews in the autonomous Croatia-Slavonia). This was a 28.7% increase in absolute terms since the 1890 census, and a 0.3% increase (from 4.7%) in the overall population of Hungary. The Jewish natural growth rate was higher than the Christian (although the difference had been narrowing), but so was the emigration rate, mainly to the United States. (We know that the total emigration from Austria-Hungary to the U.S. in 1881-1912 was 3,688 thousand people, including 324 thousand Jews (8.78%). We also know that in the 1880-1913 period, a total of 2,019 thousand people emigrated from Hungary to the US. So one could give a rough estimate of 177 thousand Jewish immigrants from Hungary in the same period.)

The net loss for Judaism due to conversions was relatively low before the end of the "great" war: 240 people/year between 1896-1900, 404 between 1901-1910 and 435 people/year between 1911-1917. Altogether, 10,530 people left Judaism and 2,244 converted to Judaism between 1896 and 1917.

The majority (75.7%) of the Jewish population reported Hungarian as their primary language, so they were counted as ethnically Hungarian in the census. The Yiddish speakers were counted as ethnically German. This way, 6.94% of the Hungarians and 11.63% of the Germans of Hungary were Jewish. In other words, without counting the Hungarian-speaking Jewish population, the 54.45% Hungarian majority of Hungary would have been reduced to 50.67%. Similarly, the 10.42% ethnic German population would have amounted to 9.21%.

The capital, Budapest, was 23% Jewish. Pest was more Jewish than Buda. Due to the prosperity and the large Jewish community of the city, Budapest was often called as the "Jewish Mecca" At that time Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna created the Antisemitic nickname Judapest, alluded to high number and percentage of Jewish population.

In 1910, 60.96% of merchants, 58.11% of the book printers, 41.75% of the innkeepers, 24.42% of the bakers, 24.07% of the butchers, 21.04% of the tailors, 8.90% of the shoemakers of Hungary were Jewish. Among the physicians, 48.5% (2701 out of 5565) were Jewish. In the 1893-1913 period, roughly 20% of the gimnázium high school (where classical subjects were emphasized) students and 37% of reál high school (where practical subjects were emphasized) students were Jewish.

The strong class division of Hungary was also present among the Jewish population. About 3.1% of the Jews belonged to the "large employer" and "agricultural landowner of more than 100 hold, i.e. 57 hectares" class, 3.2% to the "small (<100 hold) landholder" class, 34.4% to the "working", i.e. wage-earning employee class, while 59.3% belonged to the self-employed or salary-earning middle class.

There was also religious division. There were three denominations. Budapest, the South and West had a "Neolog" majority (somewhat between modern US conservative and Reform - kipah and organ are both present in the synagogues). Traditionalists ("Status quo ante") were the smallest of the three, mainly in the North. The East and North of the country were overwhelmingly Orthodox (more orthodox than "status quo ante"). One can say, in broad terms, that Jews whose ancestors had come from Moravia in the 18th century became Neolog, while Jews whose ancestors had come from Galicia became Orthodox at the split in 1869.

In absolute numbers, Budapest had the largest number of Jews by far (203 thousand), followed by Nagyvárad (Oradea) with 15 thousand, Újpest and Miskolc with about 10 thousand each, Máramarossziget (Sighetu Marmaţiei), Munkács (Mukachevo), Pozsony (Bratislava), Debrecen with 8 thousand, Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare), Temesvár (Timișoara), Kassa (Košice) with about 7 thousand each.