Second restitution to the rabbinical seminary in Budapest

On November 12, 2025, Philipp Zschommler visited the Országos Rabbiképző - Zsidó Egyetem (OR-ZSE) in Budapest. During this visit, he presented the university library with further books that had been looted from the library of the rabbinical seminary by the National Socialists in 1944. Library director Tamási Balázs accepted the volumes

Background to the research

For many years, Philipp Zschommler has been researching the origin and provenance of books that were confiscated from Jewish private individuals and institutions during the Nazi era. On this basis, it has already been possible to identify volumes in the university library that originated from the library of the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary.

earlier returns

Several rare prints from the 16th century had already been recognized as looted property and returned to the OR-ZSE. The ceremonial restitution of these four Hebrew book rarities took place on April 26, 2023.

the three volumes now returned

The three volumes now returned to Budapest are specialized works from various fields of Jewish studies published in the 19th century. They were printed in Paris, Munich and Izmir and reflect different regional and scientific traditions of Jewish scholarship.

1. Version arabe d'Isaïe de R. Saadia ben Josef al-Fayyûmî
This volume contains the Arabic translation of Isaiah by Saadiah Gaon with Hebrew annotations and a French translation, compiled by Joseph and Hartwig Derenbourg. The third volume of this classic edition of French Oriental studies was published in 1896 by Ernest Leroux in Paris; in the foreword, Hartwig Derenbourg thanks Rabbi and Orientalist Vilmos Bacher, the former rector of the Rabbinical Seminary, for his support.

2. Raphael Rabbinovicz: Variae Lectiones in Mischnam et in Talmud Babylonicum (Berakhot)
This work was published in 1867 in Munich by the royal printing house H. Rösl. It is part of a monumental multi-volume project that collects and scientifically annotates text variants of the manuscripts and early prints of the Babylonian Talmud and is one of the fundamental sources of Talmudic textual criticism and manuscript research.

3. Rabbi Eliyahu Hacohen ha-Itamari: Sefer Ene ha-Edah
The author, a rabbi in Izmir (1640-1729), was a staunch opponent of the false messiah Sabbatai Zvi. The work was first published in Izmir in 1863 and contains drashot on Bereshit, Shemot and the Book of Esther.

(original source)