List of Hungarian Jews


This is a list of Hungarian Jews. There has been a Jewish presence in today's Hungary since Roman times, long before the actual Hungarian nation. Jews fared particularly well under the Ottoman Empire, and after emancipation in 1867. At its height, the Jewish population of historical Hungary numbered more than 900,000, but the Holocaust and emigration, especially during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, has reduced that to around 100,000, most of whom live in Budapest and its suburbs.
This is a list of anyone who could be reliably described as "Hungarian" and is of significant Jewish heritage. See List of Hungarian Americans for descendants of Hungarian émigrés born in America, a significant number of whom are of Jewish ancestry.
The names are presented in the Western European convention of the given name preceding the family name, whereas in Hungary, the reverse is true, as in most Asian cultures.

Historical figures

Athletes

Boxing

Canoeing

Fencing

Figure skating

Gymnastics

Soccer (association football)

Swimming

Table tennis

Tennis

Track and field

Water polo

Wrestling

Other sports

  • Paul Havas, Columbia quarterback
  • Ferenc Kemény, co-founder and first secretary of the IOC
  • László Bartók, Rowing and 1932 men's coxless four European Rowing Champion

Olympic gold medalists at the Summer Games

Before the Holocaust

Hungarian Jews, while comprising some 5% of the population of Hungary, won 8 individual gold medals for Hungary out of 26 in the Olympic sports events between 1896 and 1936. In each of the 7 gold winning teams, there were Hungarian Jews making up 35.8% of the teams.

1896

  • Alfréd Hajós-Guttman swimming, 100-meter freestyle, 1,500-meter freestyle

1906

  • Alfréd Hajós-Guttman, swimming, 800-meter freestyle relay

1908

  • Dezső Földes, fencing, team saber
  • Dr.Jenő Fuchs, fencing, individual saber, team saber
  • Dr. Oszkár Gerde, fencing, team saber
  • Lajos Werkner, fencing, team saber
  • Richard Weisz, Greco-Roman wrestling, heavyweight

1912

  • Dezső Földes, fencing, team saber
  • Dr. Jenő Fuchs, fencing, individual saber, team saber
  • Dr. Oszkár Gerde, fencing, team saber
  • Lajos Werkner, fencing, team saber

1924

1928

1932

1936

After the Holocaust, 1948-1972

After the Holocaust, less than 1% of the population of Hungary remained of Jewish heritage.
In individual sports events, Hungary won 48 gold medals between 1948 and 1972. Sportsmen and mainly sportswomen of Jewish extraction won 10 gold medals. Hungarian Jewish women won 7 gold medals out of the 15 individual gold medals won by Hungarian women. In the 19 gold medal-winning teams for Hungary, 9 had Jewish members.
There are no known Hungarian Jewish gold medalist since 1976. Overall, Hungarian Jews won 15.4% of the 117 individual gold medals of Hungary, and had part in at least 16 out of the 42 gold medals in team events.

1948

  • Ilona Elek, individual foil

1952

1956

  • Ágnes Keleti
  • * gymnastics, asymmetrical bars, floor exercises, balance beam,
  • * team exercise with portable apparatus
  • Aliz Kertész, gymnastics, team exercise with portable apparatus
  • László Fábián, kayak pairs, 10,000-meters

1960

  • Gyula Török, boxing, flyweight

1964

1968

  • Mihály Hesz, kayak, K1 1000m

1972

Artists

Business

Businessmen

Industrialists and bankers

Chess players

Film and stage

Actors

Directors, screenwriters, and industry

Historians

Inventors and scientists

Nobel Prize winners

Physicists

Social scientists

Mathematicians

Music

Composers

Conductors

Musicians

Performers of music

Psychoanalysts

Writers

Families ennobled between 1874 and 1918 (mainly industrialists)

  • Biedermann – 1902
  • Dirsztay – 1905
  • Engel – 1879
  • Groedl – 1900
  • Gutmann – 1905
  • Harkányi – 1904
  • Hatvany – 1917
  • Hatvany-Deutsch – 1895
  • Hazai – 1912
  • Herczel – 1912
  • Herzog – 1904
  • Kohner – 1904
  • Korányi – 1912
  • Kornfeld – 1908
  • Königswarter – 1897
  • Kuffner – 1904
  • Lévay – 1897
  • Madarassy-Beck – 1906
  • Nauman – 1906
  • Ohrenstein – 1913
  • Orosdy – 1905
  • Posner Karl
  • Schosberger – 1890
  • Tornyai-Schosberger – 1905
  • Ulmann – 1918
  • Weiss – 1918
  • Wodianer – 1874
  • Wolfner – 1918