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The Jewish Summer Festival is a celebration of spirit and religion. Lucy Mallows discovers more.
GUSZTÁV Zoltai, managing director of the Federation of the Hungarian Jewish Communities and the Jewish Community of Budapest and Vera Vadas, Director of the Jewish Summer Festival bring a congratulatory message of good luck - Mazel Tov! - to the world on the eve of the sixth festival. "We Jews, Hungarian Jews, the Jews of Hungary have started many things anew several times. However, it was always a joy to be able to continue certain initiatives. Such as, for instance, carrying on with the tradition of the Jewish Summer Festival.
"It is especially important for us this summer since the Festival takes place at a time when Hungary is set to join the European Union," write Zoltai and Vadas in the program.
The festival kicks off on Saturday, August 30 and looks to repeat the success of the previous five years with a huge variety of events, including film shows, book presentations, art exhibitions and performances of music and dance.
A celebration of spirit and religion, the festival is a gathering of people connected by tradition and most of all a message of shalom (peace).
The center of the festival is District VII's Dohány utca Synagogue. The Synagogue with its gorgeous gilded interior is the second largest in the world (after the Synagogue in New York) and has a capacity of 3,000.
Most of the events are concentrated around this square, but since 2000 the festival has grown in popularity and spread out not only to other venues around the capital but also to provincial towns such as Eger, Debrecen, Nagykôrös, Nyíregyháza, Szombathely, Szolnok and Vác.
Organizers stress that the festival is open to everyone, not just Jews, and last year more than 100,000 people attended the various events.
As Hungary prepares to join the EU, the organizers also want to emphasize the eagerness of the Jewish community to find its rightful place in the larger European community, while still retaining its sense of identity and preserving its traditions and rich cultural assets.
As Zoltai and Vadas write, "This is even more so in Hungary today where the Jewish community is not merely a sad memory but a group of people growing ever stronger, open to each and everybody interested in the Jewish past and tradition.
Therefore, we anticipate that the Jewish Festival is not going to be just a tourist attraction but also a contribution - hopefully, an important one - to the preservation, enrichment and revitalization of the Hungarian Jewish traditions. We rest assured that this heritage can be woven with ease into the colorful pattern of Hungarian and European values."
The festival aims to unite rather than divide and stresses integration not discrimination. It throws open its gates to other cultures in a celebration of all Hungarian and European citizens.
Zoltai said, "This is not a political forum, but a celebration of culture," and the wide range of events will celebrate the intellectual achievement and centuries of cultural heritage of Jews living in Hungary.
The festival will be a versatile, educational, colorful and entertaining fiesta, preserving traditions and creating new ones. Here are a few highlights as a taster of the treats to come.
The week of culture will open with a moving performance at the Emanuel Tree, created by sculptor Imre Varga in the Wallenberg Memorial Park in the garden behind the Synagogue. At 9pm on Saturday, August 30, guitarist Ferenc Snétberger and saxophone virtuoso László Dés will perform For our People- a piece of music inspired by the desire to remember Holocaust victims.
Also that evening, visitors to the Gödör Club under the new Erzsébet ter park can witness a Reszô Seress memorial night. Seress, a one-time pianist at the Kulacs and Kispipa restaurants, penned the song Gloomy Sunday, a melancholic melody recorded in more than 130 versions and 40 languages, sung by such stars as Billie Holliday, Sinead O'Connor and Ray Charles.
Peter 'Sziámi' Müller, instigator of the Sziget Festival and leader of the band Sziámi, has been working with János Gassner on the Seress heritage for years and the duo has just finished recording Gloomy Sundayand other Seress songs with a unique 21st century interpretation.
At 7pm, Sunday, August 31, Igor Ojstrah will mesmerize the audience at the Dohány utca Synagogue with his selection from the works by Mendelssohn. Accompanying Ojstrah, Munichborn conductor Daniel Grossman will lead the Debrecen Philharmonic Orchestra.
The kaleidoscope of events continues with a youth day and street carnival at the Bálint Jewish Community Center in Révay utca in District VI.
On Monday, September 1 at 7pm, visitors to the Synagogue can see an international cantor concert.
Joining László Fekete, chief cantor of the Dohány utca Synagogue in La Dor Va Dor, a performance of the art of Chazan singing will be Rafael Müller.
The art is passed down from father to son and Shimon Farkas and his son Dov, now cantor of the South Head Synagogue in Sydney, will also sing.
On the same day at the National Dance Theater in the Castle District, a performance at 7pm of I Am What I Am by Ildikó Kishonti will be performed, repeated on Tuesday, September 2.
On Tuesday, September 2 at 7pm, soprano Ilona Tokody gives a recital at the MTA main hall in Roosevelt ter. Tokody will be accompanied by renowned pianist Jenô Jandó.
The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble give a recital of evergreen classics from Vivaldi to Britten at 7.30pm on Tuesday September 2 at Margitaziget Színpad (the open-air theater on Margaret Island).
On Wednesday, September 3 at 7pm, the Gypsy Rajkó Band will perform at the Synagogue. The band play in memory of Márk Rózsavölgyi. Born Rosenthal Motke in Balassagyarmat, he was one of the first people to be allowed to adopt a Hungarian name. He skillfully blended musical traditions of Hungarian and gypsy folk music and died in Pest in 1848.
Also on Wednesday at 8.30pm, a waltz and operetta evening will entertain coffee and cake lovers in the Atrium of the Gerbeaud Cukrászda.
On Thursday, September 4 at 9pm, lovers of Klezmer music should head down to the Gödör Club for a performance entitled Spiel Klezmer spiel! Klezmer was banned for many years as it was considered protest music. The Budapest Klezmer Band, established in 1990, has played an essential role in revitalizing the art.
On Saturday September 6 at 7pm, the world famous Hungarian soprano Éva Marton performs with the Tomkins Choir conducted by Janos Dobra in the Hungarian premiere of Bruch's Moses Oratory.
One of the chief aims of the festival is to stage exhibitions of outstanding Hungarian-born Jewish artists. The series goes under the title It is a homeland of mine- a quotation from a poem by Miklós Radnóti. This year the series is devoted to just one artist, unlike previous years when three artists have been featured. Lili Ország was born in Ungvár, now part of the Ukraine and like many Hungarians, had the experience of changing countries without moving an inch. Ország's entire life was dedicated to finding the common roots of Eastern European and Jewish cultures. All week the exhibition by Ország can be seen at the Budapest Gallery at Szabadsajtó utca 5 in District V.
Also during the festival, István Dégi will display his landscape paintings at the Bálint Jewish Community Center.
Throughout the week, the Odeon-Lloyd cinema in Hollán Ernô utca in District XIII pays tribute to the works of two great Hungarian actors, who both shared the name Kabos. Iconic Hungarian actor Gyula Kabos (1888-1941) and the younger Kabos, sometimes known as Kis Kabos (Little Kabos) or Vörös Kabos (Red Kabos) due to his flaming red locks, who was born in Sárvár in 1923 and this year celebrates his 80th birthday.
The Örökmozgó cinema at VII Erzsébet körút also shows Yale Strom's documentary Klezmer on Fish Street, while the recently-opened Spinoza Ház, the Dutch Cultural House at VII. Dob utca 15 presents the world of the grotesque in caricatures by Tibor Kaján.
The festival closes on Sunday September 7 at 7pm, when world-famous artists give a gala concert as a tribute to Jewish culture in the Hungarian State Opera House honoring the Day of European Jewish Culture.
Organizers say they want to make themselves known to Hungary, Europe and the world. With such a rich array of talent, all that remains to say is Mazel Tov!
Jewish Summer Festival - Zsidó Nyári Fesztivál
August 30 - September 7 2003
Tickets: Festival Ticket Office, VII. Síp utca 12
Tel: 343-0420, 344-5131
at the events, and at leading ticket offices around town
www.jewishfestival.hu
28.08.2003
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