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2 - “Deeply Rooted, Yet Alien”

Hungarian Jews and Mathematicians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2013

Robert Leonard
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal
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Summary

Of König, Kalmár, and von Neumann it may be said that they came from a world, now lost, composed of two social sets and their intersection: Hungary's mathematicians and its assimilated Jewry. Not all the former were of Jewish origin, of course, but, as in the chess world, a significant number of them were. If, over the next few pages, we examine this milieu, it is not only because it allows us to view the world in which the young von Neumann emerged, but also because it provides critical background against which we can understand later developments. Von Neumann's engagement with social science in the 1930s was bound up with the dissolution of the community described here.

Hungarian Jewry

A characteristic emphasised in many histories of the Jews of Hungary is the degree to which, beginning in the mid-ninteenth century, they achieved integration into Hungarian society. A Jewish community had been present in Hungary since the tenth century, its numbers growing at the end of the eleventh with the arrival of refugees escaping pogroms. The first Jewish law in the history of Hungary was passed when King Béla put the community under his protection, with taxes being paid to the court. The second half of the nineteenth century saw a large wave of refugees from further pogroms in Russia and the eastern part of the Monarchy, so that, between 1840 and 1890, the Jewish proportion of the Hungarian population rose from 2 percent to almost 5 percent. The emancipation of Hungary's Jews began in 1849, with the law passed that year forming the basis for a more substantial law in 1867. This was the year of the Ausgleich, or Compromise, when the Hapsburg Monarchy, in the face of nationalist pressure, granted greater autonomy to Hungary, marking the beginning of a flourishing period for the country. Law XVII of that year, on the “emancipation of the inhabitants of the Israelite faith of the country”, allowed Jews to hold various commercial licenses, practice certain professions, and enter parts of the public service.

Type
Chapter
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Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory
From Chess to Social Science, 1900–1960
, pp. 30 - 41
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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  • “Deeply Rooted, Yet Alien”
  • Robert Leonard, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Book: Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory
  • Online publication: 05 December 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778278.004
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  • “Deeply Rooted, Yet Alien”
  • Robert Leonard, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Book: Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory
  • Online publication: 05 December 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778278.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • “Deeply Rooted, Yet Alien”
  • Robert Leonard, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Book: Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory
  • Online publication: 05 December 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778278.004
Available formats
×