VÉSZI, JOZSEF

VÉSZI, JOZSEF (1858–1940), Hungarian editor and journalist. A poet and translator in his youth, he became editor in chief of the daily Pesti Napló in 1894, founded the Budapesti Napló in 1896 and brought before the public, among other writers, Ferenc Molnár\>\> and Lajos Biró (who later became his sons-in-law). He founded the Budapester Presse in 1911, and then was appointed editor in chief of the semiofficial Pester Lloyd, a position he held until 1938. During the turbulent years following the outbreak of World War I, Vészi continued to serve successive governments. He maintained his interest in Hungarian Jewry, and during the White Terror persecution of the Jews, which followed the fall of the Communist regime of Béla Kun in 1919, was a member of the delegation which went to the terrorist headquarters to seek cessation of the terror. In ensuing years, he acted as apologist of the Hungarian government even when in 1920 it introduced a numerus clausus law restricting the number of Jewish students to five percent. Vészi was given a seat in the Upper House of the Hungarian Parliament in 1927. He was a member of the Hungarian delegation to the League of Nations (1929–30). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (1929); Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon, 3 (1965), 526. (Stewart Kampel and Baruch Yaron)