PESTSZENTERZSEBET

PESTSZENTERZSEBET (Hung. Pestszenterzsébet), town, formerly a suburb of Budapest, Hungary. A Neologist congregation was founded there toward the end of the 19th century. In 1901 a synagogue was erected and in 1903 a talmud torah   was founded. A school was opened in 1922 and existed until the Holocaust. B. Krishaber was rabbi of Pestszenterzsebet from 1900 to 1950. The Jewish population numbered 21,953 in 1910; 3,293 in 1920; 7,000 in 1929; 4,522 in 1936; and 3,978 in 1941. Most of the Jews in Pestszenterzsebet were laborers but some were occupied in commerce or were members of the liberal professions. During World War II, after the German occupation (March 19, 1944), the 3,000 Jews in Pestszenterzsebet were among the last to be deported to Auschwitz, on July 8. Very few returned, and in 1969 only six Jews were living there. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Krishaber, in: Zsidó Évkönyv, 1 (1927), 131–3. (Baruch Yaron)