REICH, IGNAZ (EIZIG):

By: Isidore Singer, Ludwig Venetianer

Hungarian teacher and author; born at Zsámbék 1821; died at Budapest April 18, 1887. He received his early instruction from his father, a Jewish communal notary, and then studied at the yeshibah of Grosswardein,going thence to Arad, where he came under the influence of Aaron Chorin. After graduating from the gymnasium of Arad he went to Pest in 1842 to study philosophy, devoting himself at the same time to literature.

Reich was the prototype of a patriotic Hungarian Jew, always wearing the Hungarian national costume. For forty years he was a teacher at the Jewish communal school and at the state institution for the blind. He was the first Jew to translate to his pupils the Bible into Hungarian. He was a contributor to the "Magyar Izraelita," edited by Ed. Horn; and he translated also the prayer-book and the Haggadah into Hungarian. Reich published in German: "Beth-El" (2 vols., 1856; 2d ed. 1868), biographies of eminent Hungarian Jews; and "Beth Lechem" (Budapest, 1871), an annual for the promotion of agriculture, trade, and industry among the Jews of Hungary.

S. L. V.