Showing posts with label assimilation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assimilation. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Jewish Assimilation in Hungary

One single example, to be found in many other cases: the mathematician Lipót Fejér (1880-1959) was born Leopold Weiss. Around 1900, he changed his name, to make himself more Hungarian.
But this decision wasn't enough to be fully considered a Hungarian, and on the occasion on his appointement, in 1911, to the chair of mathematics at the University of Budapest the following incident took place:
Although already world famous and warmly endorsed by Poincaré on the occasion of the awarding of the Bolyai Prize, Fejér's appointment to a chair at the University had been opposed by anti-semites on the Faculty. One of them, knowing full well that Fejér's original name had been Weiss, asked during the occasion of Fejér's candidacy: 'Is this Leopold Fejér related to our distinguished colleague on the Faculty of Theology, Father Ignatius Fejér?' Without missing a beat Loránd Eötvös, Professor of Physics, answered "Illegitimate son". After that the appointment sailed through smoothly.
K Tandori, The life and works of Lipót Fejér, Functions, series, operators, Colloq. Math. Soc. János Bolyai 35 (Amsterdam-New York, 1983), 77-85.