József Kiss (30 November 1843, Mezőcsát - 31 December 1921,

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

) was a Hungarian poet and editor.

Biography

Kiss was born in Mezőcsát.Yaron, Baruch (2007). "Kiss, József." ''Encyclopaedia Judaica''. Eds. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Macmillan Reference USA. Vol. 12, pp. 201-202. Retrieved via ''Gale eBooks'', 5 May 2020. Also available online via
Encyclopedia.com
'. His father, István Klein, was a poor Jewish shopkeeper. His mother was the daughter of a Jewish-Lithuanian teacher who had fled the

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

s. In 1850, the family moved to Gömör és Kishont County, where his father became a Royal

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...

. While there, he was introduced to literature by , a

Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

priest. Soon, his parents decided that he should be a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

and sent him to study in

Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...

. In 1856, at the age of thirteen, he fled to Vienna. He eventually returned home and enrolled at the in

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

. In 1862, when he was 19, his mother died and, around the same time, his father's business failed. Kiss was forced to give up his studies and subsequently spent several years as an itinerant Hebrew teacher, in the cities of the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain (however, the Great Hungarian Plain was not par ...

. In 1867, the year that

Jewish emancipation Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It included efforts withi ...

was reproclaimed, with the establishment of the constitutional monarchy of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, he went to Pest and unsuccessfully appealed to the Jewish community there to support the publication of his first book of poems. He published the volume privately, as ''Zsidó dalok'' (Jewish Poems); however, it failed to gain notice. He then took work as a

proofreader Proofreading is a phase in the process of publishing where galley proofs are compared against the original manuscripts or graphic artworks, to identify transcription errors in the typesetting process. In the past, proofreaders would place co ...

at the Deutsch publishing house. From 1870 to 1873, he was the editor of the ''Illustrated World'', a journal he had taken over from . In 1873, he married a distant relative. The following year, he became seriously ill and wrote his novel, ''Budapesti rejtelmek'' (Secrets of Budapest) while bedridden. His first success came in 1875 with his long ballad-poem, ', which was presented at a meeting of the

Kisfaludy Society The Kisfaludy Society (Hungarian: ''Kisfaludy Társaság'') was a literary society in Pest, founded in 1836 and named after Károly Kisfaludy, who had died in 1830. It held monthly meetings and was a major force in Hungarian literary life, giving ...

by Ferenc Toldy. As his popularity grew, so did the controversies surrounding his point of view. The journalist,

Jenő Rákosi Jenő Rákosi (born Jenő Kremsner; 12 November 1842, Acsád, Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867), Kingdom of Hungary – 8 February 1929, Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary (1920–46), Hungary) was a Hungarian writer, journalist, theater director, edit ...

, was an especially harsh critic. Kiss also translated many of the Psalms into modern language with a contemporary perspective; he had to publish these himself due to dogmatic criticisms. Since 1882, he had supported his literary activities by working for a French-Hungarian insurance company. When the company failed in 1889, he returned to his editing work and, in 1890, created ', a social and literary bulletin. In 1914, he became a member of the Kisfaludy Society.

References

Sources

Biography
@ MEK

@ the ''Magyar Zsidó Lexikon''
''The Week'' (''A Hét'')
@ Epika

External links

@ MEK
''Ünnepnapok'' (Holidays)
@ MEK
''The Week'', 21 January 1906
with his poem ''A KNYÁZ POTEMKIN'', inspired by the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, th ...

''Simon Judit'' (1915 film)
@ IMDb {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiss, Jozsef 1843 births 1921 deaths Poets from Austria-Hungary Hungarian male poets Hungarian editors Jewish Hungarian writers Jewish poets People from Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County 19th-century Hungarian poets 19th-century Hungarian male writers 20th-century Hungarian poets 20th-century Hungarian male writers