THE MEMORIAL BOOK OF PÁPA JEWRY - JewishGen

government before the referendum [when the citizens of Sopron had the right to decide whether
to stay with Hungary or join Austria – the translator], to campaign for the Hungarians. He refused
the decoration that he was about to receive for this, saying he would not accept being decorated
by Miklós Horthy [Regent and Head of State in Hungary between 1920-1944 – the translator].
For three decades he was a member of the National Central Committee, the top leadership
of Hungarian Orthodox Jewry. He had an educated mind, a pleasant appearance, and good
manners; moreover, he was an excellent orator and a skilled writer; he had a fortunate
combination of all these exceptional qualities. He was militantly orthodox, true to his principles.
He was the only orthodox member of the City Council of Székesfehérvár. He fought for decades
for the observance of Shabbat, which was in danger. He organized the Alliance of Shomrei
Shabbat, and edited the almanac Szombat. His articles for the observance of Shabbat would fill a
whole library. He managed to change payday to Wednesday instead of Saturday for the tens of
thousands of workers in the workshops of the capital.
It was adopted by many factories as well. It also helped retailers and stallholders who kept
their business closed on Shabbat. In addition to his political and religious activities, he was an
exceptional activist of sheer goodness. He was a tireless fighter for the rights of the man-in-thestreet,
for the stallholder to get back his stall that had been taken away under the White regime, or
for the cancellation of an unfair fine. He talked patiently to the poor in trouble. He knew how to
encourage people who turned to him and to give back their hope. He was a father-like figure, a
patron for little Jews and for all the poor without discrimination of faith. Even during the White
regime he managed to ensure that the aid for Jewish communities and charitable associations was
paid by the Municipality of Budapest, which would not have been an easy job even in more
peaceful times. In the interwar period without this aid, most Jewish charitable associations would
have been forced to close down or to cut their beneficial activities to almost nothing.
At the age of 79, in 1949, his noble heart stopped beating. Hungarian Jewry lost a very
worthy citizen with his death.
ELIEZER (LÁSZLÓ) SHISHA,
the pride of Pápa Jews, the son of the highly educated elementary school teacher of Pápa Adolf
Shisha, was born in 1900. After getting his teaching diploma, he passed the matriculation exams
at a secondary school for modern languages and sciences in Kecskemét. Then he was a student at
the technical universities of Budapest and Vienna. He could feel early the storm coming to wipe
out European Jewry and had immigrated to Palestine in 1920. Only a month following his arrival,
he was appointed a teacher at the Tachkemoni School. The following year, in recognition of his
excellent professional knowledge, he started to work at the National Institute of Geodesy: there
he received an award for his patent of the planimeter from the British mandate government. The
College of Geodesy in Holon was founded in 1949; its management was entrusted to him, in
addition to his teaching of mathematics.
In the meantime, he was writing books and translating into Hebrew the great mathematical
work of Professor Brodetzky. His popular science books written in Hebrew were published by
Am-Oved: Archimedes and Newton (two editions), Abao Ziffer Harofe (two editions), Textbook
on the Theory of Errors in Measurement.
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