Historic Budapest synagogue rededicated

The neoclassical building's return to its original use after some 50 years was seen as a symbol of the renaissance of Jewish life in Hungary.

“This is the best possible answer to what the Nazis did — take the Jews away from here — and with this again we prove that the people of Israel live,” Metzger said. “An era has ended and a new era is beginning. Fifty years after the last time Rosh Hashanah was celebrated here, it will be celebrated here once again.”

Rosh Hashannah, commonly called the Jewish New Year, begins Wednesday at sundown.

The synagogue, on Lajos Street in the Hungarian capital's Obuda neighborhood, was inaugurated in 1821.

At the time, the area was outside the city limits — Jews were not allowed to be permanent residents of Budapest — and the street was known as “Jewish Street,” a hub of a growing community.

After the Holocaust, during which hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were killed, many of its members came from the nearby Jewish orphanage.

“When I came back to the synagogue this week, the hairs on my back stood on end,” said Peter Rajnai, a 66-year-old businessman and a resident of the orphanage in the 1950s. “This is a cultic building for me. It is where I was bar-mitzvahed, but I never went inside after it was no longer used as a synagogue.”

In the 1960s, the building was converted into a textile museum. Later, it became a studio for Hungary's state television, which still owns the building and agreed to a long-term rent agreement with the Jewish congregation.

“Many people felt that Hungary's Jews were just a dried up branch on the tree of the Jewish people and that it would never be renewed,” said Rabbi Baruch Oberlander of the Chabad Lubavich movement. “But Judaism is again alive and flourishing.”

Hungary's Jewish population is estimated at 100,000, one of the largest in Europe. The world's first Israeli Cultural Institute opened in Budapest earlier this week and thousands of people attended the 13th Jewish Summer Festival ending Monday.

The synagogue's rededication could also be seen as a reply to extremism, said Rabbi Slomo Koves of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation.

“One thing we can do is take our fate in our own hands and build a community,” said Koves, who led the renovation project. “This is the real answer to anti-Semitism.”

During the ceremony, a Torah scroll was placed inside an ark on the eastern wall of the renovated synagogue and candles were lit in memory of Holocaust victims.

Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said that returning the building to its original function was “restoring things to their natural order.”

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email