19/07/2025
Akos Biro: Rabbis in the Military of Austria-Hungary
The presence of military rabbis in Austria-Hungary dates back to the 1848-1849 War of Independence. Over fifty thousand Jews fought in the Honvéd Army, and were looked after by local rabbis who volunteered to join the army, as none were officially appointed. The one and only official field-rabbi was Ignác Einhorn, who was appointed by General György Klapka, Commander of the Fortress of Komárom, on the 11th of September, 1849. After the fall of that uprising, Hungarian Jews were enlisted in the Imperial Army, and their needs were once again supported by local civilian rabbis.
After 1849, until 1914, there were no officially appointed field-rabbis at all, except for the short period during the wars in 1866, when, as per the orders of the Emperor, two rabbis were nominated as Feldprediger - field-preachers to the Northern and Southern Fronts.
In July 1914, there were eleven field-rabbis with reserve status within the Royal Hungarian Honvédség, and they were called to active duty immediately at the beginning of the war. Their numbers later increased, and during the 1914–1918 conflict, a total of eighteen rabbis served within the Honvédség (although there were never more than thirteen serving at one time).
The K*K Army was roughly ten times bigger than the Honvédség, so the Imperial and Royal Israelitische Militaerseelsorge (Imperial and Royal Israelite Military Chaplaincy) naturally needed more rabbis. At the beginning of the First World War, there were only nine field-rabbis in reserve belonging to the army, but this number was later increased. The army also needed so-called assistant field-rabbis (enlisted rabbis without field-rabbi in reserve status), and finally in 1918, there were twenty appointed field-rabbis, and 56 assistant field-rabbis in the Imperial and Royal Army, making a total of ninety-four field-rabbis serving with the Austro-Hungarian Army during the war. All of them received 9th grade officer status, making them equivalent to captains; however, rank insignia was not worn on their collars (three golden stars) but rather on their sleeves in the form of three stripes.
Field-rabbis provided spiritual support to soldiers during times of war, assisting them with religious services on high holidays, wherever and whenever they were called upon. They held funeral speeches, supported the officer corps in keeping up the soldiers’ morale, and also supported the families of the fallen heroes. They had a number of administrative duties as well - issuing death and sometimes marriage certificates, and assisting the censors of the field postal services in case of letters and postcards written in Yiddish, or occasionally Hebrew.
The most important high holiday of Judaism is the Shabbat. During wartime, especially on the frontline, the religious prohibition of work and usage of fire was understandably abolished, as the rabbis all agreed that in that case the rule of pikuach nefesh (saving a soul) precedes certain taboos of Shabbat. Considering the relatively small number of rabbis in both the Imperial and Royal Army and the Honvédség, it was virtually impossible to ensure the presence of a rabbi on every welcoming of Shabbat on Friday evenings; however, that was not necessarily required. The Jewish custom allowed, and still allows, capable and wise men to lead the prayers, along with more than ten Jewish soldiers present (as prescribed in the bible).
The rabbis regularly visited troops on the highest holidays, and behind the lines, services were held in the synagogues and shuls of occupied territories, or if stone-built holy places were not available, the soldiers themselves created wooden synagogues (especially on the Italian and the Balkan fronts). On the Northern front, where Jewish presence was notable everywhere in the occupied lands, this was not necessary, as it is well-documented that local Jewish communities, who were pleased to assist and support the Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia and the occupied parts of Russia, were very keen to welcome Jewish soldiers and officers.
Another important pillar of Judaism is the kashrut - the Jewish dietary laws. Needless to say, the complex rules and rituals were very difficult to follow in the trenches, although it was common that most orthodox soldiers would rather go hungry than eat treif (non-kosher) food. The field-rabbis helped as much as possible to provide kosher food, but generally, these rituals were also abolished during the time of war. In certain cases, a Jewish shakter, a ritual butcher, was pressed into service with regiments that had considerable numbers of Jewish soldiers, such as the 11th (Munkács) and the 12th (Szatmárnémeti-Máramarossziget) Honvéd Infantry Regiments. On the feast of Pesach, when Jews may not own, eat, or benefit from chometz during Passover, (chometz is made from one of five types of grain, and combined with water is left to stand for longer than eighteen minutes. Regular bread, or any similar product, which was a staple food for soldiers, is not allowed to be eaten or even touched for the eight days of Passover, so rabbis were allowed to organise the production of matzo (unleavened bread) for those soldiers who needed it.
Field-rabbis were also responsible for the spiritual assistance of captured Jews of enemy nations. Large numbers of Jewish soldiers became POWs in Austria-Hungary, most of them from the Russian Army. As per the reports of Egyenlőség, Jewish-Russian POWs celebrated the birthday of the King in the POW Camp near Esztergom-Kenyérmező, and prayed for King and Fatherland from the Hungarian/Hebrew bilingual prayer book, which was distributed among them by the field-rabbis.
