How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867–1940 - Tapa dura

This book documents the physical aspects of the lives of Hungarian Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the way they looked, the kind of neighborhoods and apartments they lived in, and the places where they worked. The many historical photographs-there is at least one picture per page-and related text offers a virtual cross section of Hungarian society, a diverse group of the poor, the middle-class, and the wealthy. Regardless of whether they lived integrated within the majority society or in separate communities, whether they were assimilated Jews or Hasidim, they were an important and integral part of the nation. We have surprisingly few detailed accounts of their lifestyles-the world knows more about the circumstances of their deaths than about the way they lived. Much like piecing together an ancient sculpture from tiny shards found in an excavation, Koerner tries to reconstruct the many diverse lifestyles using fragmentary information and surviving photos.

ANDRAS KOERNER was born in Budapest, Hungary, where he completed a degree in architecture and worked as an architect. In 1968, he moved to the United States, where he continued to pursue his profession. Since his retirement in 2000, he has written several books and acted as a curator to several exhibitions. His books include A Taste of the Past, The Daily Life and Cooking of a 19th-Century Hungarian Jewish Homemaker (University Press of New England, 2004), The Stages of Andor Weinginer from the Bauhaus to New York (Alma on Dobbin, 2008), Egy vonakodo zsido. Esszek es tortenetek (A Reluctant Jew. Essays and Stories. 2B Alapitvany, 2013) and the Hungarian version of the present volume: Hogyan eltek? A magyar zsidok hetkoznapi elete. 1867-1940 (How They Lived. The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews. 1867-1940. Corvina Kiado, 2013).