GOLDMANN MRTA

Joyces Szombathely Szombathelys Joyce

We Hungarians are of course very happy and proud that Joyce showed such interest in
our small country. And in this small town we are particularly proud that he had one
of his two main heroic figures claim his ancestral line came from Szombathely. If you
came to my talk interested in why and how he chose the fatherland of Leopold Bloom
or how he got to know Hungarian people and why he chose a Hungarian town like
Szombathely, you are doomed to a certain amount of disappointment. These matters
have been investigated thoroughly and one of the principal authorities is our own John
McCourt in his great book Years of Bloom. Important contributions have also been
made by my friends and colleagues, Mecsnber Tekla and Takcs Ferenc who
discussed the Hungarian motifs in Joyces works. If you pursue this line of inquiry
than I could do no better than to refer you to these authorities on Joyces Hungarian
influences. This talk is about Szombathelys Joyce and in order to understand that
relationship I will be focusing on the special history of the town of Szombathely and
its Jewish past. I hope to review for you the towns rather special historical narrative,
tell you something of the story of its quite significant Jewish community and also
discuss some rather notorious anti-Semites who unfortunately played an important
role in our history. With a big jump I will then move on to the present and
particularly to Szombathelys Bloomsday celebrations that began in the mid 1990s.
Old attitudes die hard in Hungary and histories continue to be revised by
contemporary political groups and other interested parties. I will show that what can
only be described as a quite controversial attitude to history has remained current in
Hungary and manifested itself in the celebrations of Joyces novel. In the space
between my discussion of Szombathelys past, and the varied contemporary views of
its past holding sway in our post-Cold War present, I would also like to satisfy the
Joycean collators of pertinent information by providing you perhaps with some new
discoveries related to the already well known Bloom or Virag facts. So I wont be
ignoring those critical questions of why Joyce chose Szombathely particularly. Or
how come Leopold Blooms father came from that place. I will do this mainly by
revealing the most recent findings of my Szombathely historian friend Robert Orbn.
Lets start with the name of the town. Szombathely, which is famous for being
the birthplace of St Martin. It began its documented existence as a Roman town called
Savaria. The name Szombathely is from the Hungarian szombat, which literally means
"Saturday" and hely which means "place". This is presumably a reference to the fact
that medieval markets were held every Saturday. Sunday in Hungarian is vasrnap. The
word vsr means market and nap is the word for day. So it seems an almost self
evident fact of Hungarian life that markets were usually held on Sunday. Except of
course for some places, where for some particular reasons they were held on other days
like in Szombathely, or in the town of Szerdahely (near Szombathely meaning
Wednesday). We know that for Jewish people Szombat/Sabbath is supposed to be the
most important day. However, the legal situation for the Hungarian Jewish community

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was that they were not allowed to go and sell on any of the regular 104 weekly and 5
annual markets until 1840. This was one of many restrictions that the repressed Jewish
communities suffered during this period. And its the history of that repression that has
some interesting Joycean resonances.
For instance, the year of Joyces birth, 1882, coincides with two notorious
events relating to the oppression of the Jews of Central Europe. In Hungary there was
a blood libel case in Tiszaeszlr. Local Jews were accused of carrying out blood
sacrifice in the form of a ritual murder of a Christian girl, Eszter Solymosi, (It was
later discovered that she had committed suicide by throwing herself into the River
Tisza). More well known and central to the story of Anti Semitism in Central Europe
was the holding of the first International Anti-Jewish Congress in Dresden, 1882.
Both of these events can be linked to a local politician from Szombathely called
Gyz Istczy. In fact his prominence in Hungary was such that he represented
Hungary in Dresden his credentials confirmed by his recently established Hungarian
anti-Semitic Party.
1882, Joyces birth year, can be seen as a turning point or perhaps even a new
beginning in the long history of anti-semitic feeling in Hungary. Although the falsely
accused Jews were acquitted in the Tiszaeszlr blood libel trial, the case lead to a
strengthening of anti-Semitism throughout Hungary. In 1883, there were attacks on
Jews in Budapest and in other places. These outbreaks assumed such proportions that
in certain districts the authorities were forced to proclaim a state of emergency in
order to protect the Jews and their property. As anti-semitic propaganda, the
Tiszaeszlr blood libel played a conspicuous role in the proceedings of the first
International Congress of Antisemites. Hungarys problem received special
attention in Dresden in the summer of 1882. The propaganda value of the story was
such that even after the conclusion of the trial in 1883, Gyz Istczy and his
followers were able to establish Hungarys first National Antisemitic party with
sufficient support to contest and win in the parliamentary elections of 1884. Their
portion of the popular vote translated into 17 seats in the parliament.

Tiszaeszlr is generally regarded as the first formal prosecution in Europe

against Jews for the ritual murder of a Christian to take place outside of Poland or
the Russian Empire after the late sixteenth century. The case was widely covered in
the European press, where it was treated with incredulity, studied neutrality, or alarm
at the danger posed by Jews (or at least some Jews), depending on the politics of the
journal or author in question.

The Hungarian case was followed by a wave of similar public accusations

against Jews in Central and East Central Europe. At least four more of these stories
crystallized into full-fledged criminal prosecutions in which state prosecutors and
justice ministries invested considerable amounts of time, labour, and prestige: Xanten
in the Prussian Rhineland (18911892), Poln in Austrian Bohemia (18991900),
Konitz in West Prussia (after 1918, Chojnice, Pol. [19001901]), and Kiev in the
Russian Empire (Ukraine [19111913]).

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 As John McCourt notes in his own work, Joyce later included the issue of
ritual murder in Ulysses, where Bloom states: Its the blood sinking in the earth
gives new life. Same idea those Jews they said killed the Christian boy. (U 6.771-2).
Here it has been assumed that Joyce may have been referring to a similar incident that
took place in Polna in Bohemia in 1899.
Istczy, while he was an MP, made several proposals to withdraw the equal or
partial rights given to the Jewish population and came up with several suggestions
concerning their removal and resettlement. He declared in the Hungarian Diet in June
1878 that the only solution to the menace of the Jews, who promoted social
democracy, poisoned international relations and retarded the growth of Christianity
was the restoration of the ancient Jewish state. Since medieval methods like mass
murder cannot be carried out, therefore he was among the first in the world who
supported their deportation to Palestine.
There was, by the way, another infamous anti semitic politician from
Szombathely Brdossy Lszl, who was a Prime Minister for a period during 1941-
42. He promulgated the notorious Third Jewish Law, which banned marriages
between Christians and Jews (1941). He was an MP for Szombathely until 1944 and
was subsequently executed in 1946 for war crimes.

If we assume that Joyce chose Szombathely because he was aware of some of

the history of its Jewish community then that history is of course of interest. But to be
able to understand the lives of the Jews of Szombathely, perhaps we need to
understand something of what conditions prevailed generally in Hungary.

According to the 29th Act of the 1839/40 Parliament, The Liberal Parties
passed a law that granted the Jews equal rights to settle down and live in Hungarian
towns (except for mining towns). An extra tax (called Tolerance tax), which had been
imposed earlier on the Jews, was abolished in 1846.
Based on: Ger Andrs: Liberals, anti-Semites, and Jews during the birth of
Modern Hungary
For the ruling Liberal Party, the public rationale for these decisions was that the time
had come for this unfortunate people to enjoy equal rights. The principle was expressed
as justice can only happen if the human rights of all human beings are respected. The
belief was that a free constitution can only rest on this principle. The promulgators of
this new dispensation believed that the reason why Jews had been suppressed and were
regarded as aliens by the general population who found their nature hostile was due to
Jewish involvement in trade. They argued that as soon as their situation was improved
and the Jewish population had equal rights to live and work as they wish there would be
a sea change in the climate of opinion. In fact they predicted as a consequence that Jews
would be encouraged to move towards other professions and perhaps even cultivate
land. The implicit expectation was that to become Hungarian citizens with equal rights
Jews in exchange would have to change their religious customs and lifestyle. Social
acceptance depended on certain conditions being met. The intention was not to integrate
them into Hungarian society and allow them to keep their traditions etc. What the
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Liberals wanted to do was to assimilate them totally by getting the existing community
to renounce their Jewish identity to a great extent. By giving them equal rights, their
aim was to strengthen the Hungarians and to create a unified nation against
Germanisation in the Hapsburg Empire. The core of the Liberal Party ideology was
based on a plan to homogenise the different cultural ethnic groups instead of tolerating
their different Hungarian cultural concepts. The Jews seemed to be ideal subjects to
homogenise as they did not have any national identity. The Hungarian Liberals offer
was the following: Be Hungarian, and if you are Hungarian you can be a citizen. In
order to be Hungarian, renounce your cultural traditions and customs. If you do all this
we shall not only accept you, but recognise you.
Most Jews accepted this offer. Not only politically, but also concerning their
language. They became Hungarian in their traditions and way of life. Instead of
modernising their own cultural, religious traditions they renounced their own cultural
and religious norms. Later Jewish intellectuals attempted to prove their acceptance of
the bargain for example by their participation in the 1848/49 Fight for Independence,
which is well documented in Bla Bernstein, the Szombathely rabbis book The 1948
Hungarian Fight for Independence and the Jews. Which first appeared in 1898, the 2nd
edition in 1939 to remind people of the alliance between the Hungarians and the Jews,
how the Hungarian Jews were part of the Hungarian nation and how they took their
share and fought in the war sacrificing their lives for the nation.
An alternative solution was on offer from the Anti-Semites. This was
Dissimilation. Simultaneously with the birth of Modern Hungary in 1848 along with
equal rights, egalitarianism, and consensual assimilation a new kind of anti-Semitism
also appeared. This was expressed in a new ideology, which wanted to exclude Jews
from modernisation and from the profound social changes taking place (a process best
described as emerging from a feudal society into an early capitalist one). In 1848 the
early suggestions seemed to have little capacity to convince, and a more complex
ideology to support the idea only appeared after the acceleration of the assimilation
processes had begun. But from 1870s representatives for the cause of anti-Semitism
appeared at a political level. As I said before, a party was created and MPs elected to
the Parliament. Following the Tiszaeszlar blood libel case in 1882 it gained
momentum and the movement got stronger. What bothered the anti-Semites most was
the success of the assimilation process, capitalisation and its social and wealth related
structural changes. Their basic idea was that Jews were not suitable for assimilation
for racial reasons and as a consequence of this the related bad personality traits made
it impossible for them to become Hungarian citizens. This idea is based on
Hungarians being a racial-ethnic category. Proponents of these theories regarded the
Jews as parasites, who penetrated the body of the nation and wanted to deconstruct it.
In their eyes Hungarians were chivalrous, honest and straightforward but the Jews
were greedy, two-sided, and definitely not patriotic. Liberalism was good for them
because they can suck the honey from the flowers as stealing wasps, instead of the
productive bees. Propaganda focused on the corruption of the morally pure
Hungarians by making them drink rum and smoke cigars and enjoy other luxuries.
And of course, as an unassimilated group they were accused of seeking to manipulate

4
the courts, the government, the parliament, the local governments and use the press to
manipulate the people. So the policy to reverse the Liberal reforms was based on the
idea that actually due to Jewish or simply bad characteristics the Jewish
assimilation was harmful creating parasites, who would remain alien to the nation.
Although they now spoke Hungarian, this was a corruption of the language by using
an urban version, which was different from the rural language. Jews by definition
could never become Hungarian since they are cosmopolitan, and are never going to be
patriotic, therefore, instead of giving them equal rights they should be deprived of
their rights, and should be encouraged to leave the country.
If the history and context of Hungarian anti-Semitism seem at once very
familiar, almost clichd and obvious then thats because you all have the benefit of
historical hindsight. I am sure many of you have heard these arguments rehearsed
before in other contexts but Joyces seemingly prescient awareness of, and
concentration on the theme of anti-semitism is often seen in the light of those events
that occurred long after the novel had been completed. As Joyce himself could not
have known what horrible events were to be visited upon Europes Jews, I think its
safe to say that it was the conditions pertaining to this small Hungarian town that form
Joyces imaginary background to the character of Bloom.

So now lets turn to the History of Szombathely's Jewish communities and see
how the Blum family lived there in the 19th century.
Unlike in Trieste where despite a few anti-semitic incidents, the Jews lived
relatively in peace and were tolerated and protected by e.g. Emperor Leopold in 1675
and by Maria Theresa in the 18th century, in Szombathely their life was quite different.
As John McCourt remarks in his book In Trieste they were singled out for
exceptionally favourable treatment because they were useful for the city and empire.
In Szombathely unfortunately, they were treated very differently despite their
usefulness and contribution to the economic and cultural prosperity of the town.

For this story I have to start in the year 1567, when the Emperor Maximilian II.
granted the town the privilege of allowing none but Catholics to dwell within its
walls. Even in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the municipal authorities rented
shops to Jews, they were only permitted to remain in the town during the day, and
then only without their families. Down to the beginning of the nineteenth century only
three or four Jewish families succeeded in taking up permanent residence. The
members of the little community of Szombathely, therefore, dwelt not in the town
itself, but in the outlying districts (now united into one municipality). They were
allowed to stay in the properties of wealthy aristocrats, like at Count Adam
Batthyanys estate in Szkefld or in the districts of Szentmrton, and perint.

In 1687 36 Jewish families moved to Rohonc (Rechnitz). Until 19th century

Rohonc had the largest Jewish community with a synagogue and a cemetery. From
the 1840s this centre moved to Szombathely.

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 Szombathely was/is a bishopric therefore it was up to the Bishop who had the
right to live in the town. Obviously the Bishopric did not give residence permits to
the Jews, but as was the case elsewhere, the community relied on some Jewish
commercial and financial services in rented shops. When the Jews of Hungary were
emancipated by the law of 1840, the city was obliged to open its doors to them. Jews
could now settle down everywhere, carry out commercial activities, set up factories,
companies and educate their children. Most Jewish families were involved in small
businesses and in a town that had very few Jewish businesses before the emancipation
there were opportunities. After 1840 Szombathely became a target of Jewish
migration. From a population of 36 people numbers increased rapidly so that by 1848
300 Jews were now in residence.

At the beginning of the revolution of 1848 anti-semitic riots broke out in the
town. On April 4th , the synagogue in Szkefld was attacked and plundered. Local
families were threatened with expulsion. The authorities intervened, however, and
when peace was restored, the community quickly resumed its rapid development. We
can see that development in the history of local education and religious practice.

The first Jewish elementary school was founded in 1846. As part of the
assimilation process in 1847 it became compulsory to teach Hungarian language and
from 1861 teaching was in Hungarian. Teachers were forbidden to speak German in
the school.

A small Orthodox congregation, numbering about 60 or 70 members,

separated from the main body in 1870 following a debate within the Jewish
community over some rituals and liturgical issues which lead to the split of the
community to an orthodox and a neolog group. The orthodox had their own cemetery,
rabbi, a synagogue, and inevitably, an orthodox school was founded in 1898.

While the towns first synagogue was built by the former lord of the town,
Count Batthynyi in his estate in Szkefld to accommodate the pre-emancipation
population, the growing and prosperous community funded what became a symbol of
their civic status. In 1880 a large neolog temple was built. It is one of the handsomest
edifices of its kind in Hungary. It was designed by Ludwig Schne, and combines
oriental Moorish and Romantic elements. This monumental house of prayer was one
of the first synagogues in Hungary with a tower. Its architectural elements
demonstrate a transition of styles from Romantic to Eclectic.

The recent history of the building is quite interesting. Shorn of its original
religious identity, this building has been functioning as a concert hall since 1975. A
memorial outside commemorates the Jews deported in World War II.

Around the turn of the century the Jewish community, now firmly established,
began to be identified with the towns prosperity. Known as the Queen of the West,
Szombathelys Jewish businesses and Jewish taxpayers gave it the resources to build
some impressive public infrastructure. But the communitys confident display of

6
prosperity can be seen best in its domestic architecture. Prominent Jewish private
houses changed the appearance of the town. But while wealthy families felt secure
enough to display their riches in domestic architecture, the community focus meant
the creation of more modern Jewish institutions. Jewish societies flourished,
particularly womens associations and societies for helping the poor. In 1927 an old
peoples home was built.

Between the two World Wars the Jewish lawyers, doctors, tradesmen,
industrialist, artists belonged to the intellectual and economic elite of the town. This
community produced a number of prominent Jewish Hungarians all of whom seem to
have perished in the Holocaust.

According to the 1910 census, 10.1% of the population, 3125 people were
Jewish by religion. Between July 4 and 6, 1944, 4228 Jews were deported by the
Hungarian authorities from Szombathely to Auschwitz. There were some survivors of
course but the fate of the Jews of Szombathely was to be largely erased from the local
community. The mechanics of their elimination from the community were simple and
efficient. The Ghetto was created in 1944 March 19th following the German
occupation of Szombathely, the deportation of the Jews started on 3rd July 1944. 10
percent survived the holocaust.

I would just like to mention a few important Jewish families and gradually
arrive at a/the Blum family who lived in Szombathely.

I would like to mention an important Jewish family as an example of how

successful the assimilation process could be. The Geist family established prosperous
agricultural, industrial and commercial companies. They had a steam-operating saw
factory and a timber depot. They built the first steam bath in town, which was a
modern public bath, (operated with steam and electricity). For their achievements the
family was given the noble title and rank from the monarch of seregnyi in 1913.

Another example from the arts was the violin player Brdos Alice who
studied music at the Music Academy in Budapest. In Szombathely she was a well-
known and respected violin teacher from 1926 until 1940 when she had to retire due
to her Jewish origin. She regularly gave concerts, played with Bartk Bla in 1934
when he visited Szombathely, and toured Italy in 1936. She established the
Szombathely Chamber Music Association, and the Collegium Musicum chamber
orchestra in order to educate people and evoke their interest in classical music, they
gave 4-5 concerts a year.

Unfortunately, all these people perished in the holocaust.

Finally I would like to mention another interesting person, Andrs Weiss,

whose father, Oszkr, was a prosperous and well-off civil engineer at the turn of the
century designing railways, bridges, stations, and took part in construction projects as
a private entrepreneur, or a co-worker. One of his projects was the building of Nr 7

7
pier in Trieste. For this they brought the building material from their own mine in
Sistina with their own steamer. According to Andrass recollections, Joyce had
probably got in contact with his workers while they were there. Interestingly, at the
end of 1800s there were intensive and manifold connections between west-
TransDanubia and Trieste. Italian journeymen, stonemasons were working in the
region around Szombathely, in some villages entire streets were built by them.

Andrs Weiss parents belonged to the intellectual elite of the town, his step-father
was a famous doctor and a musician, who played music together with Brdos Alice in
the Collegium Musicum ensemble. Despite their conversion into Catholicism and all
their deeds at the beginning of the century, his whole family died in Auschwitz.

Now I would like to turn to the Szombathely relations of Joyces hero, Bloom.
This part will be based on the research of Orbn Rbert, my historian friend in
Szombathely,
Orbn Rbert To appear to be Bloom The relations of the hero of Ulysses in
Szhely
As we know from Ulysses Rudolf Virg started his journey from Szombathely
then through Budapest, Vienna, Milan, Florence, London, he eventually reached
Dublin. From a Hungarian Jew he later became an Irish Protestant, then a Catholic.
As for his names, his family names and first name were typical among Hungarian
Jews in 19th century. A number of Jewish families called Blum lived in
Szombathely (no Virags though). As we know Jews had to change their Hebrew
names to German names in the 18th century, which was followed by a Hungarification
of family names in the 19th century. Many of them adopted Hungarian names to better
assimilate to the Hungarian society.
Among the first Jews to settle in Szombathely were Mrton Blum textile
merchant and his family, they rented Mihly Bossnyis house at 36 Gyngys u.
from 1843 (now it is 40 Ftr, the main square where the Joyce statue stands).
Their son, Sndor (he was a wood merchant) was born around 1935 and married Julia
Lazar from Rohonc, had 6 daughters and 2 boys, their eldest daughter Josephine Paula
appears as Blum Paula in later documents. We should remember that Joyce refers to
Bloom as Leopold Paula Bloom. One of his sons name is Henrik Blum which may
remind us of Blooms alterego Henry Flower.
The Blum surname appeared frequently in Rohonc, there were several families
with this name, e.g. Juli Blum, the wife of Nathan Blumschein, who lived together
with Marton Blums family in the 1850s in Szentmrton, one of their children was
Leopold Blumschein
1889 Jewish Marriage Registers for Szombathely record the marriage between
23 year old sculptor Mr Blum and Maria Rogendorfer.
It is interesting to follow Blum Mrtons family. Sndors son (Edmund)
Blum dn was born in 1847 in Szombathely. He went to primary school there, later
studied medicine at the university in Vienna. He started writing and published his
writings in a German language local paper. He worked as a dentist in Vienna from

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1907. His first book came out in Munich in 1913 Warum lassen sich die Juden nicht
taufen? Why do the Jews not let themselves be baptised? It is a collection of political
and historical essays. In 1920 he set up a publishing house E. B. Seps Verlag and
launched a book series Blum Bcher, which was later followed by Intime
Bibliothek. In 1928 he established a new publishing house called Bergis Verlag. He
published about 30 books under his name, but sometimes he used a penname. His
books were erotic, sexual- psychological novels, (one might recall the Sweets of Sin)
in a cheap edition and in a large number of copies, he was called the Viennese
Maupassant this is also the way he advertised himself as well. It is not known
whether Joyce came across any of his books.
As for the Szkesfehrvr relations: (reference to a Stefan Virag in Ulysses as
a first and 2nd cousin of Rudolf Virag). Interestingly, here as well, one of the first
Jewish settlers in the town was somebody called Mrton Blum. (There is no data
about the possible connection between the two families)
The only person, who knew the two families was the rabbi Mayer Zipser, who
was in Szekesfehervar between 1844-1858, and moved to Rohonc, and lived there
until his death in 1869. Himself and his brother Markus Zipser were scholars well-
known in Jewish public life. Surprisingly, Markuss son moved to Trieste and was the
member of the Hungarian Circle. He had a printing company and later published
newspapers.
Unfortunately there was no Istvn Virg photographer in Szekesfehervar
during the 2nd half of the 19th century, only a person called Sandor Virag, who worked
in Szekesfehervar between 1907-1920.
As for the Hungarian Circle in Trieste, called Il Circolo dei Magiari, (it was
located near the synagogue) two third of the members were Hungarian Jews, who
organised cultural events. The president was a woman called Nidia Frigyessy
Casterlbolognese, whose husband, Rcalmsi Adolf Frigyessy was one of the
wealthiest Jewish people in Trieste, the founder and president of the Adria Insurance
company (RAS). Joyce knew them, just like Teodoro Mayer, the founder and owner
of Il Piccolo and Il piccolo della Sera, in which newspaper Joyce regularly published
articles. He was a Hungarian Jew and a model for Leopold Bloom. Another important
Hungarian to know in Trieste was: Lajos Villani, a diplomat and literary historian
who lived in Trieste in Joyces time and his name may have influenced Joyce in
picking the name Villona for his Hungarian character in After the Race in
Dubliners.
One of the most important Hungarian people in Trieste for Joyce was a literary
historian and a translator, Marino de Szombathely, whose name probably influenced
Joyce on choosing that Hungarian town. At around Joyce s time in Trieste he was
working on the Italian translation of Odyssey, which he published in 1918. He was
born in Trieste in 1890 and studied literature at the university of Rome. Although his
family came from Hungary, they were not Jewish. Marino de Szombathelys son
Gabrio keeps note of the family history. According to him, his ancestors came from
Hungary, from Gyr, but at some time they did live in Szombathely. Marinos
grandfather established the Italian branch of the family, as a soldier when he settled in

9
Italy. Marino, being an irredentist, was a close friend of Teodoro Mayers and knew
Joyce. They both gave lectures at the university Populare. Joyce between 1907-12 and
Marino de Szombathely between 1914-18. Gabrio, who is? a lawyer, and historian is a
respected member of Trieste community. He confessed to Orban Robert that his father
did not really like Joyces works.
Joyce may also have known of Szombathely from the list of markets and fairs
given in La Guida di Trieste or he may have heard of it as the birthplace of Saint
Martin in his Jesuit school.

Bloomsdays in Szombathely
In the final third part of my talk, with a big jump I would like to move to the 1990s
and show how the past controversies around history in Szombathely have survived
and manifest themselves in the celebrations of Bloomsday.
Belated reception Joyces positive reception in Hungary only started in about the
end of the 1980s due to the influence of Marxist critics, mainly Lukacs Gyrgy and
his pupils negative criticism (Heller Agnes, Hermann Istvn, Egri Peter etc.), who
called him a bourgeois decadent formalist writer and who was always shown as the
main example to be the counterpart of Thomas Mann, the progressive bourgeois
writer. Not even the 100th years anniversary of his birth was celebrated. Although
Ulysses has two Hungarian translations (one from 1947, the other 1974), there was
always a commenting afterword explaining why the novel was still not completely
acceptable.
It was only from the 1990s, much later than in other ex-communist countries,
that the situation changed and a discourse on Joyce without ideological issues started
to develop and Joyce became an interesting topic for independent scholarly
discussion. (1978 a three part Radio play on Ulysses) It is not surprising therefore that
in 1994 during the first Liberal Local Government in Szombathely when Jzsef
Raspberger, a local cultural organiser, came up with the idea of celebrating
Bloomsday, his initiation was welcome.
According to Feiszt Gyrgy, the Liberal Party Vice-Mayor then, after the
political changes the opportunity opened to support free cultural activities and the
Liberal leadership from 1990 in Szombathely promoted cultural programmes, avant-
garde performances, and an openness to the subcultures that were not really allowed
to exist during the previous communist regime. Therefore, for them Joyce, besides
realising its relevance to the town and possible touristic potentials as well, embodied
the great modernist writer that had been unfairly oppressed and that could now put
Szombathely on the map.
The first Bloomsday in Szombathely happened to be on the 90th anniversary of
the year the novel is set, and interestingly, but perhaps not so surprisingly, considering
the isolation of the artists and literary people during communism, it was organised
without having any knowledge of existing Bloomsday elsewhere in the world. This
also explains the fact that the Szombathely Bloomsdays did not try to follow or copy

10
the Dublin ritual for example of reading out passages from Ulysses following the
events in the novel, simple because the organisers had no idea that Bloomsdays had
been celebrated at all.
On June 16th 1994 the following appeal could be read before the first
Bloomsday in the local newspaper Vas Npe.
Due to a remarkable idea this afternoon in Szombathely, in the Iseum (Roman ruins)
the novelists figure and the novel itself will emerge to a certain extent. Joyces alter
ego and his company invite you to an interesting happening. Just like once when great
religions, continents met along the Amber Road, Joyces figure will take shape in the
same way. There will be shaving, flitting, summoning of spirits, signing. The artist
embodying the writer will be giving out autographs. On the first Bloomsday just like it
happened in Dublin in 1904. Meanwhile the writers big size portrait will be painted.
And so it happened, in the sacred place of the Isis Temple they evoked the
spirit of the novel, they took photos of the event, the press was invited, parts from the
novel were read out, they enacted certain scenes, like shaving in front of the mirror,
drinking Guinness, eating a plate of pork instead of fried kidneys. A local artist
Masszi Ferenc embodied Joyce. A big canvas was hung with Joyces signature and
extracts from Ulysses with parts mentioning Szombathely and the Hungarian
references, while artists were painting their Joyce inspired works, a Joyce portrait, and
parts from Ulysses were being read out.
The aim of the organisers was to create a link between Szombathely and world
literature, to draw the local residents attention to the great modernist and to attract
tourist to the town. Besides being a Roman town and the birthplace of Saint Martin,
they thought they could create a new literary tradition, by organising it annually and
hoping that it would become a place of a literary pilgrimage.
From the next year, however, the Bloomsdays moved in a different direction
Szekely Akos avantgard artist took over and what he meant by bloomism was a
really abstract term, taking it to the extreme. It became the symbol of tolerance, the
recognition of the otherness, and the differences and the emphasis of urban modernist
values. According to him their task was to grasp the motion, the wandering and the
meeting of peoples, philosophies, languages, attitudes. Bloomism is a spiritual road
that Stephen Dedalus was taking deliberately, and which had been taken by Bloom
and his family by force. Anybody can be a Bloom.
Therefore, Bloomsday became an Irish cultural event on the one hand, and on
the other hand bloomism embodied a culturally international aspect, an avant-garde
happening and artistic performances based on a new way of life without any limits,
which besides the literary and artistic events included several folk, pop, and modern
musical programmes. It gradually became a well-known and significant alternative
contemporary arts festival with the most prominent Hungarian contemporary artists.
From 1995 they annually had a publication called a Leopold Bloom Folder which
was edited by kos Szkely, and which belonged to mail art, and included a collage
from every participating artist.
The Local Government and Town Administration approved this festival and
included it in its calendar for cultural events. In 1997 a Joyce plaque was made by

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Tornai Endre Andrs on the facade of a house in the Main square where the Blum
family was supposed to have lived in the 19th century. It was unveiled by Derek
Hannon, the 1st Secretary of The Irish Ambassador. The inscription in English and
Hungarian Languages attempts to depict the wandering spirit, with the following
quotation: Passing from land to land among peoples, amid events. It is an oval
shaped stone plaque framed in bronze, resembling a date-stamp. It informs the visitor
of the following: According to James Joyce, the leading character of his novel
Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, who lived in Dublin, came from Szombathely. In the middle
of the 19th century this house was the home of the Blum family. A complete official
ceremony developed with a youth brass orchestra playing the Irish and Hungarian
national anthems, and raising the flags followed by opening speeches from the Mayor
and the Irish Ambassador in front of the Blum House on the main square.
After an 8 year Liberal party leadership in the town, a right wing change took
place in 1998, which developed a different attitude to the celebration of Bloomsdays..
Although their Mayor was not against this festival, different voices could be heard in
the local cultural committee, who were not so much in favour of organising such
sometimes shocking avant-garde events. It seems that Bloomsdays became a target to
express their different approach and values of culture and art. Therefore they began to
find excuses to withdraw the financial support and create obstacles to the celebration
of the event. One of them was that Bloomsday unluckily coincides with the execution
and death of Imre Nagy, the Prime Minister of the 1956 Revolution. They were
against having fun and showing a happening on what they called was supposed to be a
national day of mourning.
Fortunately, the Socialists took over in 2002 and they continued promoting
and supporting Bloomsdays. The next major step was the erection of a Joyce statue in
front of the Bloom House in 2004. The statue, which depicts the Irish novelist as he is
stepping out of the wall, was made by Veres Gbor. It was financially supported by
the Irish Embassy. The Socialist Mayor of the town Ipkovich Gyrgy and the Irish
Ambassador Brendan McMahon unveiled it. The town seriously supported the
publication of the translation and critical edition of Joyces works as well as research
into Joyces Hungarian references, the Blum family etc., and other related cultural
events. For example a play was performed by the writer Lszl Najmnyi called Joyce
in Exile, in which Joyce expelled from Trieste due to the 1st World War visits the
textile merchant Lipot Blum in Szombathely to ask for money. In return he offers to
make him the hero of his novel. When it turns out that Blum is not so keen on the
idea, he asks Joyce to help him in his campaign to become the mayor of the town.
Among Blums promises is the establishment of a theatre in Szombathely, as well as
making Szombathely an independent Irish state. In his play Najmanyi wanted to show
the political life and the politicians of the town in a rather sarcastic way. The dream of
the people to have a theatre came true a few years ago. Apart from organising
Bloomsdays, the town of Szombathely gave a tremendous support in helping to
organise the 2006 International James Joyce Symposium in Hungary and a special
Bloomsday, where among other things they performed a cantata by Matyas Seiber
called Three fragments from the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

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 Besides some already existing conflicts among the avant-garde artists and the
town leaders because with the national anthems and the official ceremonies the former
found it too established and formal and less spontaneous, the previous ideological
problems appeared again as the right wing leadership took over. This year in addition
to the well-known ideological issues, we had to face serious financial problems.
Bloomsday hardly got any financial support from the town, and although the Mayor in
his speech expressed his wish to continue the tradition, everybody could feel they did
not really make a big effort. Not even the national anthems were played, let alone the
avant-garde artists, who ceased to cooperate with the town leadership.
Szombathely has had a limited role in promoting Hungarys Joycean
connections but Joyces influence has been felt in the work and words of many creative
people in the last 17 years since the Bloomsday events began. The towns annual
celebrations, and the arts based activities that have been a by-product, they have
introduced many people to Joyce and his work. These activities seem to be winding
down a little now but the cultural impact of the Bloom connection has been felt. Its in
the local appreciation of Blooms Jewishness though, that I believe the connection of
Joyce to Szombathely has been most influential. The town of Leopold Blooms family
ties suffered such a terrible loss during the Holocaust that many of its recent inhabitants
were only remotely aware of, and rather insensitive to, their towns Jewish past. But if
the Jewish community was as successful and prominent as I have outlined, its hard now,
particularly with Bloomsday as the popular annual festival, to ignore their previous
existence and passing. Of course many of their monumental buildings continue to exist
and these do inspire the imagination, but Hungarys past is in many respects deeply
wounding and the present population, and more obviously their political
representatives, are wary and struggle to master its meaning. A good example of what I
mean is that the public and popular anti-semitism of leading figures in the towns
history has also largely been forgotten. Bloomsday in Szombathely has created a benign
environment in which some of the most tender aspects of Hungarys painful past can be
explored in the context of a novel written by an Irishman. Finding out more about
Blooms putative ancestry recalls some very painful real memories in Hungary.

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