Introduction: Jewish Budapest as a Symbolic Space -- Cultural Visions of the Emerging City -- The Jewish Question and the Paradox of Hungarian Liberalism -- A Jewish Politician in a Divided Public Space -- The Jewish Humor Magazine and Collective Self-Parody -- The Scandal of the Budapest Orpheum -- Critical Cross-Dressing and Jewish Bourgeois Identity -- Epilogue: The Warning of Jewish Budapest after World War I
Summary
Nearly a quarter of the population of Budapest at the fin de siècle was Jewish. This demographic fact appears startling primarily because of its virtual absence from canonical histories of the city.Famed for its cosmopolitan culture and vibrant nightlife, Budapest owed much to its Jewish population. Indeed, it was Jews who helped shape the city's complex urban modernity between 1867 and 1914. Yet these contributions were often unacknowledged, leading to a metaphoric, if not literal, invisible status for many of Budapest's Jews.In the years since, particularly between the wars, anti-Semites wit
