Jewish Mementos in the Zala Comitatus After Nagykanizsa and
Zalaegerszeg the third largest Jewish community lived in
Keszthely. According to the census of Jews in 1725-28 5 families
who had come from Rohonc rented property here. In 1875 134
persons, 24 families, lived in one of the outer streets of the
city. The city was the center of the Festetics estate and thus
grew continuously more bourgeois, the number of Jews increased
sixfold until 1890, and continued to grow at slower pace until
the last census in the monarchy in 1910. In the first half of
the 20th century the Jewish population started to decrease due
to moving and lower reproduction. In 1941 755 Jewish persons
were registered, another 74 were qualified as Jews. The first
synagogue of Keszthely was built in 1780 to replace the former
rather small prayer house. In 1812 the Jewish community bought
it from the municipality together with the rabbi quarters. The
growth of the Jewish community and its purchasing power soon
made the construction of a new sy