A székely Jeruzsálem és a szombatosok utódainak ábrázolása a 19. század végi, 20. század eleji útirajz irodalomban
The Representation of the “Székely Jerusalem” and the Successors of Sabbatarians in the Travel Literature of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: I examine a small section of Transylvanian travel literature comprising travel descriptions by visitors to the Sabbatarian proselyte community of Bözödújfalu [Bezidu Nou] between the 1870s and the Second World War. The main purpose is to present how the image and self-view of the community emerge from these descriptions. The image takes strikingly different forms depending on the national and confessional affinities of the travellers. Jews seeking emancipation painted a positive picture of the proselytes or gers and recognized their Jewishness in religious terms, while conservative Orthodox Jews were mostly critical. Neither did Hungarian visitors see them as authentic Jews, but merely as making some ignorant but determined effort that burdened their lives, renouncing their individuality, never being recognized, and ultimately not belonging anywhere. This non-belonging and failure to be accepted was expressed through nicknames like “spotty dogs” and “bats”. The gers themselves lived out their mixture of ideas in complete frankness, as manifested in both dress and behaviour. They declared themselves to be fully Hungarian and fully Jewish, without distinguishing between national and religious identity.

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