Budapest or Prague? Jews in Eastern Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus’ at the turn of the 20th century

Eastern Slovakia as a specific region and, at the same time, a network of counties in Eastern Slovakia (not carrying the name ‘Eastern Slovakia’), was not mentioned in the socio-political context until the end of the 19th century. Until then, as well as later, it was perceived as an integral part of Upper Hungary which might have had its peculiarities but its character reflected the specifics of other regions within the Kingdom of Hungary. Moreover, Eastern Slovakia was neither geographically, nor economically, let alone ethnically excluded from the rest of the territory. One of the reasons was the country being divided into counties (also called komitats, stolitsas, or, post-1850s, zhupas), which fully sufficed for administrative and political needs. For a long time, Eastern Slovakia as such was not even defined; the term was first mentioned in the first half of the 20th century, primarily in the context of the administrative division of the new – Czechoslovak – state.

The present monograph is merely a probe into the complex matter of the social change after the radical upheaval of 1918, on the example of the Jewish population, which was, on the one hand, an integral part of society but, on the other hand, stood apart from, or was set apart by, Christian society. The monograph does not capture the internal structure of Jewish society, but merely traces its outlines. Nevertheless, it strives to point to the factors which determined and formed the relationship of the majority society towards their fellow Jewish citizens both in times of the socio-political changes and shortly after in the new historic post-war environment.