Kármán (Formerly Kleinman), Mór
KÁRMÁN (formerly Kleinman), MÓR
KÁRMÁN (formerly Kleinman ), MÓR (1843–1915), Hungarian educator. Born at Szeged, he was probably the first Jew to take his doctorate at the University of Budapest (1866), where he became a lecturer in pedagogy, ethics, and psychology in 1872, and professor in 1909. In 1869 he was sent to Leipzig by the minister of religion and education, Baron Joseph Eötvös, to study methods of training teachers for secondary schools. There, he was entrusted with the writing of a curriculum for the training of teachers at the model elementary school and later served as director of education at the model secondary school in Budapest. He reorganized and expanded the national secondary school system. According to Kármán, religious education was a sound basis for morals and ethics. When, in 1873, the Hungarian government decided to underwrite the teaching of religion in public schools, Kármán was asked to administer the Jewish educational needs in the public schools. He edited a Hungarian educational journal, and participated in the publishing of school textbooks. Apart from his own scholarly contributions, Kármán translated numerous works into Hungarian. He devoted much of his energies to Jewish affairs, and issued the appeal which led to the foundation of imit – the Jewish-Hungarian Literary Society.
bibliography:
A. Moskovits, Jewish Education in Hungary (1848–1948) (1964), 306–7.
[Shnayer Z. Leiman]