EINHORN, IGNAZ

EINHORN, IGNAZ (Eduard Horn ; 1825–1875), Reform rabbi and leader in Hungary, economist, and politician. Einhorn, who was born in Nove Mesto, organized the Society for the Reform of Judaism in Pest in 1847. Later, as rabbi of the society's first Reform temple, he introduced several radical changes (such as observing the Sabbath on Sunday). A year later he helped to found the Society for the Propagation of Hungarian Language and Culture, and edited the first Jewish-Hungarian Yearbook. In 1848 he published his Zur Judenfrage in Ungarn, and established the weekly Der Ungarische Israelit. During the Hungarian national uprising in that year he volunteered for the national army as chaplain. After the revolt was suppressed, he fled to Leipzig, Germany, changing his name to Eduard Horn. On the publication of his treatise on Ludwig Kossuth (1851), the Hungarian government requested his extradition. He took refuge in Brussels, where he studied philosophy and economics, and later (1856) moved to Paris. He published several important works on economics and was made an honorary member of scientific societies in France and Belgium. In 1867 he received the Grand Prix of the French Academy for his L'economie politique avant les physiocrates. After the Austro-Hungarian compromise in 1867 Einhorn returned to his native country. He was elected to parliament and in 1869 was appointed deputy undersecretary of commerce, the first Jew to occupy such a high post there. During his government service he was associated with drafting the laws granting the Jews equal rights. In the conflict between Orthodox and Reform Judaism he then supported the former. By government decree, a memorial tablet was affixed to the house where he was born; a street in Budapest was named after him.

bibliography:

J.J. (L.) Greenwald (Grunwald), Korot ha-Torah ve-ha-Emunah be-Ungarya (1921), 65–66; idem, Li-Felagot Yisrael be-Ungarya (1929).

[Aharon Fuerst]