JEWISH MONUMENTS IN ZEMPLÉN
Sátoraljaújhely

The first Jews arrived in Sátoraljaújhely at the beginning of the 18th century. A census of the taxes levied on Jews recorded three families in 1726 and 41 families in 1746. [1] The Chevra Kadisa (Holy Society) of Sátoraljaújhely was founded in 1772. In the next census, between 1770 and 1772, 97 people were recorded in 25 families. In 1811, 76 families were recorded, and in 1821, 139 families.

In 1840, there were 1,125 Jews in the settlement, which was 17.8% of the population at that time. By 1880 their number had almost tripled: 3,983 belonged to Jewish communities (35.4% of the population). In 1920, there were 6,445 Jews (30.5%) in Sátoraljaújhely. In 1941, their number had decreased to 4,160. The number of Yiddish speakers was 53 (0.3%). They may have arrived as refugees from Galicia and become members of the Hasidic community.[2]

After the Congress of 1868-1869, the Jews of Hungary split into three denominations: orthodox, neologue and status quo ante. The Jews of Sátoraljaújhely belonged to the status quo ante stream, which until 1878, rejected the split, but later, the split began to take a slightly different form. In 1878, the Hasidim broke away from the community and founded an independent, so-called “Sephardic” community. [3] In the community, however, the atmosphere between the traditional Orthodox and the more progressive-minded Jews remained tense until 1886, when the Orthodox split off. From then on, there were three congregations present in Sátoraljaújhely: Orthodox, Sephardic and status quo ante. [4] The reason for the split was that in 1886, the Chevra Kadisa introduced a new measure whereby the dead were taken to the cemetery in a cart. This went against the old practice of „carrying the deceased on a stretcher on foot.” [5]

During the 19th century, the possibilities for integration slowly increased as the settlement’s economy grew and the number of Jewish industrialists and intellectuals increased. [6] However, the years of prosperity were interrupted by the Treaty of Trianon, which resulted in the annexation of a part of the settlement by Slovakia, cutting off an important trade route that contributed to the development of the town.  The economic crisis of the following decade and the emergence of anti-Semitic measures in the country also caused considerable hardship for Jews in Sátoraljaújhely. From the 1920s, anti-Jewish laws and decrees restricting commercial activity, property rights, and later, the scope of everyday life gradually made it impossible for Hungarian Jews to live anywhere in the country.

„The German troops that entered Hungary on 19 March 1944 arrived in Sátoraljaújhely on 22 March. The Hungarian administration soon began to prepare the ghettoization of the region. Zemplén County was assigned to the VIII (Kassa) gendarmerie district of the 1st Operation Zone and, citing the approach of Russian troops, the ghettoization there was among the first to begin on 15 and 16 April.

The only ghetto in Zemplén was established in Sátoraljaújhely, to which 13-15 thousand people were relocated in 4 days. After a month, the Jews living in inhuman conditions in the ghetto in the most neglected part of the town were transported to the Auschwitz death camp. Red Army soldiers reached Sátoraljaújhely in November 1944.

550 Jews survived the Holocaust. According to the 1949 census, there were only 358 Jews living in the town. Due to emigration, the number had fallen to 80 by 1950, and religious life in the town ceased. The Jews who left Sátoraljaújhely found a new home mainly in Israel and the United States.”[7]

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1 Gábor Anna, Mint folyó mentén a kertek
2 Cseh Viktor, Zsidó örökség. Vidéki zsidó hitközségek Magyarországon (MAZSIKE, Budapest 2022)
3 Ibid.
4 Cseh Viktor, 69. o
5 Ibid.
6 https://zsidooroksegutja.hu/place/satoraljaujhely/ Letöltve: 2023. október 21.
7 Uo.