Alberti-Irsa, Hungary

ALBERTI-IRSA (also known as Albertirsa), twin cities in the Monor district of Pest-Pilis-Solt Kiskun county, Hungary. Jews first settled there in 1746. In 1770 there were 13 Jewish residents in Alberti and 95 in Irsa, mainly occupied as merchants, tailors, tavern owners, distillers, and bookbinders. The communal regulations (takkanot) date from 1772. The chevra kadisha was organized by Rabbi Abraham Pressburger in 1784. A synagogue was built in 1809, and a talmud torah in 1804; a Jewish elementary school was opened in 1851. The participation of the community in the Hungarian struggle for independence in 1848–49 cost it an indemnity of 1,200 gulden, levied by the Austrian authorities. Many of the Jewish residents left Alberti-Irsa after 1850, when Hungarian Jews were permitted freedom of movement. The community constituted itself as a Status Quo community in February 1881, although a number of Jews organized themselves as an Orthodox congregation. The two were consolidated in 1889 by Rabbi Zsigmond Büchler. In 1929 the congregation had 250 members, including those of the other communities in the district. The rabbis of Alberti-Irsa include Abraham Pressburger, author of Even ha-Ot (Prague, 1793); Amram Rosenbaum (1814–26); Hayyim Kittsee (1829–40), head of a large yeshivah and author of the responsa, Ozar Hayyim (1913); Jónás Bernfeld (1853–72); and Zsigmond Büchler (1886–1941).

According to the census of 1941, Irsa had a Jewish population of 124 (1.7% of the total), and Alberti of 21 (0.5%). In addition the twin towns had one and six converts, respectively, who were identified as Jews under the racial laws. The status quo congregation of the twin cities, led by Rabbi Imre Blau, had 92 members in 1941. After Blau was drafted into a forced labor service company in 1942, the community came under the leadership of Rabbi István Székely. After the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Rabbi Székely was appointed head of the local Jewish Council. The 149 Jews of the twin cities were first concentrated in a local ghetto that was established in the so-called Fodor lumber yard and in the "Singer building." They were later transferred to the ghetto of Monor from where they were deported to Auschwitz in early July 1944. The community numbered 14 in 1968, but ceased to exist a few years later.

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.