Isidor Margulies (1871 - 1956)

  Born:
Sosnowiec, Russian-Poland, 1871

Parents:
Moritz Margulies and Clara Sussman

Siblings:
Anna Margulies
Julius Margulies
Siegmund Margulies
Bella Margulies
Emil Margulies
Hanns Margulies
Heinrich Margulies



  Spouse:
Julie Lion, born Drucker

Children:
Private


  Died:
Israel, 16.03.1956

Four Margulies Brothers Emil was in close contact with two of his brothers: the oldest, Isidor and the youngest, Heinrich. The parents sent both of them, as well as Emil, to larger cities, when they were still young, where they could visit better schools than were available in the small town of Sosnowitz [PL: Sosnowiec]. After completing german Highschool, Isidor came to Austria, where he studied law. While he was working as Law-Praktikant in Salzburg he came across a recently published broshure "the Jewish State" from Theodor Herzl. This slim book caused such a change in him, that he cut short his stay in Salzburg and moved to Vienna, in order to become a student of Herzl's. He became a champion of this new ideal.

This is but one of the countless examples for the power of Herzl's thoughts, that Isidor Margulies was brought to such an abrupt change in his life, - a man who seemed destined to be a quiet, genuine Humanist and Scholar, but was drawn into the political party fighting. He was a leader in the zionistic dealings of pre-war Vienna, was Head of the Jewish Minority League in Austria after the First World War, and during those years, became totally fluent in Hebrew. After the German Annexation of Austria he emigrated to Palestine, where he still lives now [1949]. [1]

Isidor was one the founders, publishers and editors for the "Jüdische Zeitung" , which was published from 1907 to 1920.
After the Welt moved to Cologne as a result of Herzl's death in 1904, the Jüdische Zeitung became the leading voicepiece of the jewish zionists. Published for 14 years, it was one of the longest-living viennese zionist newspapers [2].

The Jüdische Zeitung failed because of the insufficient financing and lack of readers. It was superseded by the Wiener Morgenzeitung. Isidor was one of the founders and editors for this paper, too.


Snippet: Contributions from women were rare: one of the exceptions was an article on women's work in Palestine by Nanny Auerbach-Margulies [Isidor's sister-in-law].


In 1908 he was appointed to Chairman of the newly-constituted "Jüdische Nationalrat für Deutsch-Österreich" (Jewish National Council of German Austria) [3][4].

In February 1924 Isidor was appointed General Secretary to the "Jüdische Völkerbundliga für Österreich" and represented them at League of Nations Congress in Lyon in June 1924 [3][4].

Among other offices held, he was also Vice-President of the Jewish School Association:
The cultural work for Palestine was conducted by the Jewish Schulverein, of which Dr. Zevi Chajes is the president and Dr. Isidor Margulies, the vice president. By Our Vienna Correspondent. "Our Daily News Letter." Jewish Telegraphic Agency 23 Dec 1924.
JTA Jewish News Archive, 23 Dec 1924 target="_blank"> Archives of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 23 Dec 1924.



References:

  1. Dr. Emil Margulies, Ein Lebenskampf für Wahrheit und Recht, Faerber, Tel Aviv, 1949
  2. Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938, Frank Stern, Barbara Eichinger, ... 2009
  3. Jüdisches Lexikon, 1927
  4. Eugen Hoeflich (Moshe Ya'akov Ben-Gavriêl), Tagebücher 1915-1927, Böhlau Verlag, Wien, 1999