ÓNODY, GÉZA°

ÓNODY, GÉZA ° (1848–?), Hungarian antisemitic leader born in Tiszaeszlar. A member of the gentry, he was elected to the lower house of parliament as a delegate of the opposition Independence Party in 1881. At first, Ónody's antisemitic activities were connected with the blood libel of 1882 in *Tiszaeszlar where he owned an estate. Raising the matter in parliament in May 1882, he opened the public campaign around the libel. From that time, he was one of the leading spokesmen of the group responsible for the anti-Jewish agitation which followed in the wake of the libel. In his work, Tiszaeszlar in der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1883, orig. in Hung.), Ónody sought to "prove" the authenticity of the blood libel against a historic background. When the antisemitic party was organized in Hungary in 1883, he became one of its leaders, together with Istóczy Cyőző. Because of his activity in the blood libel affair and his work on the subject, he also became renowned among antisemites abroad, especially in Germany. He was among the leaders of antisemitic unions which convened the First International Anti-Jewish Congress (Dresden, 1882) and one of its most prominent participants. In 1884 he was reelected to parliament, this time on an antisemitic platform, and became one of the leaders of the antisemitic faction.

bibliography:

Istóczy und Ónody (1882); Z. Bosnyák, A magyar fajvédelem uttöröi (1942), 63–102; N. Katzburg, Antishemiyyut be-Hungariyah 1867–1914 (1969).

[Nathaniel Katzburg]