52 The portrait of Johanna Bischitz

Oil, canvas

Gift of an unknown donor, 1933

In 1866, to address the social difficulties faced by orphans, widow women struggling to  support their families, starving poor and brides with no trousseau, the Pest Israelite Women's Association was set up. The development of modern urban life has created new social problems, which the traditional institutional system was unable to address, so there was a need to find new solutions by the adaptation of old traditions. This is how the Women’s Association was created, whose president from 1873 until her death in 1898 was Mrs David Bischitz née Johanna Fischer. For the care of the soldiers wounded during the occupation of Bosnia, Franz Joseph awarded the Crowned Gold Cross of Merit to Johanna Bischitz in 1879. Ten years later, in 1889, a statue was erected in her honour in the building of the nursery school of Women’s Association. Johanna Bischitz, who was very popular because of her charitable activity, was the first woman ever to get a statue in Hungary. Her oil portrait was given to the museum by an unknown donor in 1933.