Michael Visontay is an Australian journalist, editor and writer.How a vandalized Gutenberg bible changed the fortunes of a family of Holocaust survivors
/ref> He has worked in senior roles with numerous Australian newspapers, including ''

The Sun-Herald ''The Sun-Herald'' is an Australian newspaper published in tabloid or compact format on Sundays in Sydney by Nine Entertainment. It is the Sunday counterpart of the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. In the six months to September 2005, ''The Sun-H ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', ''

The Australian Jewish News ''The Australian Jewish News'' (''AJN'') is a newspaper published in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Since 2019, it has been a local partner of ''The Times of Israel''. History The ''AJN'' is descended from ''The Hebrew Stan ...

'' and ''The Jewish Independent'', as well as a sports commentator at the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

Family and early life

Visontay was born to a

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

father, Ivan Visontay, whose family hailed from

Gyöngyös Gyöngyös is a town in Heves County, Hungary, beside of the Gyöngyös creek, under the Mátra mountain ranges. As of 2022 census, it has a population of 27,957 (see Demographics). The town is located 8.4 km from the M3 motorway and 80.8 km ...

in the country's north. Aged 14, Ivan and his parents Pali and Sara Weiszmann were interned in concentration camps after the 1944 German invasion of Hungary. Pali and Ivan were able to return to Gyöngyös, where they reopened their delicatessen and rented rooms from Olga Illovfsky, who became Pali's wife. After the introduction of the

Hungarian People's Republic The Hungarian People's Republic (HPR) was a landlocked country in Central Europe from its formation on 20 August 1949 until the establishment of the current Hungary, Republic of Hungary on 23 October 1989. It was a professed Communist_state# ...

, the family applied for visas to migrate to the United States; after the applications for Pali and Olga were refused, they decided to move to Australia instead, their passage being supported in part by Olga's inheritance of wealth from the estate of the antiquarian bookseller

Gabriel Wells Gabriel Wells (January 24, 1861 – November 6, 1946) was a noted bookseller, historian and author. He was one of the most important antiquarian booksellers in America and Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. He was president of the ...

. Following the family's arrival in Australia in 1952, they established a delicatessen named Minerva in the Kings Cross area of Sydney.

Bibliography

*''Welcome to Wanderland: Western Sydney Wanderers and the Pride of the West'', Hardie Grant, 2016. *''Who Gave You Permission? The Memoir of a Child Sexual-Abuse Survivor who Fought Back'' (Manny Waks, co-authored by Michael Visontay), Scribe, 2016. *''Noble Fragments: The Maverick who Broke Up the World’s Greatest Book'', Scribe, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Visontay, Michael Journalists from Sydney The Sydney Morning Herald people Jewish Australian writers Jewish Australian journalists Australian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Year of birth missing (living people) Living people