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This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish Families from the town of Gyöngyös in Heves County, Hungary.
Jews are first recorded there in the 15th century, and in 1735 there was an organized community. The synagogue, built before the end of the 18th century, was destroyed in the great fire which devastated the city in 1917. The community always remained a *status quo ante community, though a separate Orthodox community was established in 1870. The first rabbi of the community was Feivel b. Asher Boskovitz; he was succeeded by Wolf Lippe (officiated 1840–50), a noted bibliophile. Eleazar Fuerst (1853–1893) founded a yeshivah in the town. The Jewish population numbered 2,250 in 1920, and 2,429 in 1941. In 1942, anti-Jewish laws were adopted in the province, affecting the Jews of the town. Following the occupation of Hungary by the German army in March 1944, 1800 Jews were locked in a ghetto. In June 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz; of these only 461 survived the Holocaust. There were 300 Jews in Gyongyos in 1946 and 414 in 1949. Most left in 1956.
Jewish Field Marshal Edward Ritter Von Schweitzer was born here in 1844. His military and philanthropic endeavors are well recalled in several publications.
Nathan Feitel Reinitz was briefly the rabbi here (in the mid to late 1830s).