MEZEY, FRANZ:

By: Isidore Singer, Ludwig Venetianer

Hungarian juristand author; born at Acsad Feb. 5, 1860. His parents had destined him for a rabbinical career, but after reaching maturity and becoming a thorough Hebrew scholar, he took up the study of jurisprudence and was admitted to the bar at Budapest. As a writer and speaker his abilities were devoted to the cause of Judaism even in his student days. In 1883 he was the mainstay of the defense in the Tisza-Eszlár affair as the representative of the Hungarian Jews, and for the past two decades, as secretary of the Jewish chancery ("Landeskanzlei"), he has been their chief source of inspiration toward advancement in religious and educational matters. He was one of the founders of the Hungarian Jewish Literary Society, and, with Wilhelm Bacher, edited its year-book; from 1891 to 1895 he was coeditor of the "Magyar Zsidó Szemle" with Ludwig Blau. He has also contributed to the "Nemfeti Ujság" and the "Togtudomany i Kozlony." Mezey is (1904) secretary and attorney of the ḥebra ḳaddisha of Budapest, which has attained, under his management, a membership of 10,000.

S. L. V.