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Commemorating the construction of a new synagogue in Aszod, Hungary. Inscribed are the names of the rabbi, R. Joseph Leib Schreiber, the prominent members, and official of the community. Aszod is a small Hungarian town N.E. of Budapest. Jews settled in Aszod at the beginning of the 18th century. There were four Jewish families in 1725 and 21 in 1746, mainly merchants. A burial society was founded in 1747 and a synagogue built in 1757. In the first quarter of the 19th century there were 530 Jews (24% of the total population). During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against Austria the community contributed a considerable sum to the fund for the militia. By the mid-19th century there were only 330 Jewish residents (21% of the total). In 1908 the community erected an imposing new synagogue. After World War I the census recorded 311 Jewish residents (9.5% of the total), occupied in commerce, crafts, and industry.
During World War II Aszod became notorious as the central collecting point for forced Jewish labor. The Aszod community numbering 278 in 1941 (4.9% of the total) remained there until 1944, when about 30 of the men were forced into labor-battalions, while the rest were deported. Only 21 Jews returned to Aszod after the war but most left again shortly afterward. In 1954 the synagogue was demolished. Rabbis who officiated there include: R. Benjamin Ze'ev Wolf Boskowitz (1785); R. Samuel (Weisz) Budapitz (1789–1818); R. Zevi Isaac Hirsch Hirschfeld (1830–60); R. Mark Handler (1866–70), father of R. Simon Hevesi; R. Joseph L. Schreiber (1881–1921); and R. Joseph Berg (1935–44).
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