MUNKÁCSI, ERNÖ

MUNKÁCSI, ERNÖ (1896–1950), Hungarian jurist and art writer. Born in Páncélcseh, then Hungary, the son of Bernát *Munkácsi, he entered public service in Budapest in 1921 and was the secretary of the Neolog community. In 1923 he became legal adviser and served as chief secretary from 1942 until he went underground. During the period of the Holocaust, he proposed the idea of contacting the Hungarian anti-Nazi underground movement, and he was one of the editors of the underground manifesto which revealed to the non-Jewish community the horrors of deportation. After the war he published documents and lists from the period of the Holocaust Hogyan történt? ("How Did It Happen?" 1947). As a jurist, Munkácsi devoted himself to the interpretation of the laws relating to the legal standing of the Jews. He strove for complete autonomy of the Jews in Hungary, within the framework of the laws of emancipation (1867) and repatriation (1895). He wished within this framework to educate toward a historical Jewish consciousness, and to eradicate the widespread ignorance of Jewish matters. He published many articles in Jewish journals, in particular the periodical Mult és Jövö ("Past and Future"), and Libanon, where he served as one of its editors. He later collected these articles in a volume entitled Könyvekés kövek ("Books and Stones," 1944). In his short book Római napló ("Diary from Rome," 1931), he described the relics of the Jewish past in Rome. In his comprehensive Miniatürmüvészet Itália könyvtáraiban; héber kódexek ("The Art of the Miniature in the Libraries of Italy. Hebrew Codices," 1937), he traced most of the miniature material found in the leading libraries of Italy. His German book Der Jude von Neapel (1939) dealt with the remants of Jewish art in southern Italy, and his English article "Ancient and Medieval Synagogues in Representations of the Fine Arts" (Jubilee Volume Bernhard Heller, 1941, 241–51 ed. by Munkácsi) was devoted to the representations of art in synagogues.

bibliography:

Egyenlöség (Nov. 1, 1930), 16; B. Munkácsi (ed.), A nyitrai, nagyváradi és budapesti Munk család … genealógiája (1939), 17.

[Baruch Yaron]