KRAUSZ, ZSIGMOND

KRAUSZ, ZSIGMOND (1815–1874), journalist and Orthodox communal worker. Born in Györ, Hungary, he later settled in Körösladany. From his youth he was a spokesman for the Orthodox community, and in 1867 was among the founders of the Shomer Hadas, the nucleus of the national Orthodox organization of Hungary. He was a delegate at the general congress of the Jews of Hungary held in Budapest (1868–69). After the schism in Hungarian Jewry, he demanded complete autonomy for the communities without any form of centralism. On the establishment of the national Orthodox organization, he was made a member of the executive. Krausz was editor of the Hungarian-language weekly, Magyar Zsidó (1868–69). As well as polemics against antisemites, he published a series of articles (in 1857) on the Jewish religion and the Talmud in the largest Hungarian daily, Pesti Napló. He maintained a lively correspondence on Jewish subjects and halakhic questions with leading contemporary personalities and did much to foster the friendly attitude of some Hungarian statesmen toward Orthodox aspirations for independence. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Reich, Beth-El, 2 (18682), 163ff.; R. Schwartz, Shem ha-Gedolim me-Ereẓ Hagar, 1 (1913), 183; L. Venetianer, A magyar zsidóság története (1922), 288, 292–3. (Baruch Yaron)