You are now entering the Jewish Currents archive.
April 13: The Hungarian Revolution
Hungary became a republic on this date in 1849, during a wave of revolutions in central Europe against the Austrian empire. The Jews of Hungary — who had been variously tolerated, expelled, heavily taxed, and massacred for centuries — mostly supported the revolution wholeheartedly. In July, they obtained full citizenship in the new republic, but their liberties were again lost when, days later, the Austrians, with Russian help, suppressed the revolution and began to punish the Jewish community with heavy taxation, imprisonment and persecution. A wave of German-speaking immigrants to the U.S. before and after the failed revolution brought some influential Jews to these shores. Among them were the founder of Reform Judaism, Isaac Mayer Wise, business pioneers Levi Strauss and Marcus Goldman (Goldman Sachs), and abolitionist August Bondi. “Among these Forty-eighters,” writes Jon Presco in the Bohemian Democratic Register, “were many Austrian Jews. Most of [them] became abolitionists in America, joining the new Republican party despite the fact that the Democratic party traditionally showed more openness to immigrants. It has been conjectured that their votes helped Abraham Lincoln win the 1860 presidential election.”
“I have remained faithful to the principles that I swore to uphold during the stormy days of the 1848 revolution.”
—August Bondi
I’m Arielle Angel, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. Before you go, there’s something I need to ask.
We’ve seen over and over how the mainstream media falters in telling stories on our beats—whether it’s antisemitism, Israel/Palestine in American politics, Jewish identity, or the American left. At Jewish Currents we’re committed to uncompromising analysis and longform reporting on these issues and more—stories you won’t find anywhere else. In a media landscape that obscures injustice and flattens discussion, we’re changing the conversation. But we need you.
If you believe in this work, please consider making a donation—or even better, a recurring one—to ensure that we are able to keep publishing stories like this one. We can’t do it without you.
