LOEWY, ISAAC

LOEWY, ISAAC (1793–1847), industrialist; founder of the town of Ujpest. Born in Nagy-Surány (now Surány), Hungary, Loewy studied at the yeshivah of Pressburg. He also learned his father's trade, that of tanner, and with his brothers Joachim and Bernát took over the family business in 1823. When in the early 1830s he tried to establish his workshop in Pest, the town council and guilds refused to admit him. At about that time some uncultivated lands to the north of the town were being parceled out for sale by the proprietor, Count István Károlyi; Loewy, his family, and his workmen settled on them. The terms of the sale stipulated that there would be no religious discrimination in the new settlement and that the traditional craft guilds would not be established there. By 1834 Loewy's new factory had started production, and the first residential building was erected in 1835. Several wealthy Jews of Pest followed Loewy, building rows of houses on the new settlement. In 1839 and 1840 a synagogue and school were built. In 1840 the settlement was officially declared a borough, with the name Ujpest ("New Pest"). This was mainly due to the efforts of Loewy, who was elected the first president of the town council of the new town. He also suggested the development of a port on the Danube at Ujpest. After his death a street in Ujpest was named after him.

bibliography:

I. Reich, in: Beth-El; Ehrentempel verdienter ungarischer Israeliten, 1 (1868), 8–20; E. Ballagi, in: Egyenlöség, 41 (Dec. 16, 1922), 14; Gy. Ugró, Ujpest (1932), 19–21.

[Jeno Zsoldos]