The revival of the Jewish Budapest

The ten days between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year),  and Yom Kippur, (the Day of Atonement) is, as French philosopher Sartre would put it,  spent in a unique existential crisis. Commemorating the creation of man, Rosh Hashanah is the day when Jews are judged by God for the coming year. The righteous get sealed to live, whereas the wicked are blotted out of the book of the living.
This being the time to almost obsessively deal with the question of life and death, it makes one wonder what the Jewish community of Budapest had been destined for. It seems that, with their sweeping religious revival, the Chosen People of the capital are definitely amongst the living.
The Jewish community in Hungary, about 800,000 strong before Word War II, used to be one of the largest in Eastern Europe. Determined to integrate rapidly, Jews –many of whom were immigrants from Poland and the Balkans- even contributed to the development of the Hungarian language. Yet, their patriotism counted for nothing when the restrictive laws were introduced in the 1920s. Triggered by the Jews’ prosperous state, anti-semitism had been institutionalized in Hungary on every level of society already a decade before Hitler took power in 1933.
After the Holocaust, many of the survivors emigrated to Palestine. Most of those, who stayed in Hungary abandoned the Jewish tradition and identity, either because of the traumatic war and Holocaust experiences, or due to the influence of the atheistic and dictatorial Soviet regime. After Hungary’s return to democracy in 1989, religious activities, including Jewish life, have re-awakened.

A birth of a new identity?

For the first time in decades, anti-semitism, be it the Nazi or the Soviet variant, has been officially outlawed and Hungarian Jews became free to practice their religion. The political and religious freedoms have generated interest in Jewish culture and faith.
Thus, the Hungarian capital is now home to a dozen synagogues, Jewish kindergartens and day-schools. Community centers, religious study groups and youth organizations are flourishing.
Having revived Jewish culture and tradition, young Jews today appear to have a marked need to redefine their identity as well. “Enough of distress and the Holocaust – being Jewish is actually a joyous thing!”says Dóra, 19, former leader of a Zionist youth organization. “Holocaust is a part of my heritage, my grandparents have suffered from it and it has brought the Jewish people closer, yet I believe there is more to Judaism than a pure self-defensive reaction to anti-semitism. Being Jewish means a sense of belonging to me: belonging to a people, a culture and a frame of mind.”
With the generation change, and the spread of the new modern life-style, with a special focus on the Internet, an increasing number of young urban Jews have renewed public discourse, and have expressed their wish to reform the Jewish narrative as well as to adapt institutions.
In an interview with The Budapest Sun, 29-year-old Head Rabbi of the Hungarian Orthodox community, Slomó Köves said he also agreed that it was high time to renew Jewish identity in the sense, that it is still overly bound to the Holocaust’s trauma and the fight against anti-semitism. Despite being aware of the fact that is impossible to draw a clear line between Jewish identity and the trauma of the Second World War, Rabbi Köves believes that Jewish subsistence should attain a positive meaning. Remembrance, he says, is best served through learning. Crassitude, says the Rabbi, is the greatest enemy of all, for it aggravates the formation of Jewish identity and leads to anti-semitism and prejudices as well.
When formulating Jewish identity, the first step is its assumption, which is later followed by apperception and the practicing of the faith.
“Being open to the world is of great importance; however, openness does not mean giving up one’s own values and belief.”

Ways of reaching out

“Practicing my religion, going to the synagogue every Sabbath and lighting Shabbos candles on Friday evenings is my way of being Jewish. It was through my faith that I have found my own connection to Judaism,” says Nóra, 25, who does it the “traditional way”, claiming that (re)turning to religion is the way to formulate identity. The Chabad-Lubavitch (Orthodox Jewish movement) community however offers some modern and rather unorthodox ways of reaching the youth. Aside from establishing a Yeshiva (a school that teaches Torah, Mishna and Talmud to any age-group) the organization publishes prayerbooks and operates the www.zsido.com website (this latter also includes an advice column called “Ask the Rabbi”). They also represent themselves at a number of events organized for young people .
It was this year, for example, that Chabad Rabbis Baruch Oberlander and Rabbi Schmuel Raskin were giving advice at the Zsidó Tent and rocking with the crowds of young people at the annual Sziget Fesztivál.
The young rabbi, Tamás Verô of the Neologue Frankel synagogue, has also been doing remarkable work, establishing a vibrant Jewish community in Buda and attracting a significant number of young Jews to attend service in his synagogue.
One of the main aims of Rabbi Verô’s and the his wife’s work is to help the young Jews, who come from assimilated families, to find and formulate their Jewish identity. “It might sound awkward to hear this from a rabbi,” Rabbi Verô told The Budapest Sun,” but I believe that by now, the community has become as important as the religion in formulating a Jewish identity.”
Nowadays, it is not the parents, who teach their children about the values of Judaism, but the children who are bringing their parents back to the synagogues.    “Jewish youngsters, on the other hand often lack knowledge about their roots and seek the true meaning of their identity” the rabbi says, adding “this is where I am trying to help.”
Finding education of both children and grown-ups of high importance, the Hillel Foundation at the Frankel street synagogue organizes Talmud-Torah courses for youngsters and a mini-school for adults in cooperation with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Those who would like to learn more about the community should go to www.frankel.hu; the Hillel Foundation’s website can be visited at www.hillel.hu.
Twenty-five-year old economist, Gábor claimed to have come from a family of intermarriages. “I was initially sent to a Christian school; however I have always felt closer to Judaism. Having attended a Jewish high-school, Gábor has established bonds of friendship and a spiritual connection to Judaism (partly thanks to Verô) and is now practicing Jewish religion.
The World’s largest international Jewish summer camp in Szarvas is perhaps one of –if not the- most important opportunity for young Jews to explore their faith, make friends from all over the World and expand their horizons.
The Micve Club at the Frankel Synagogue offers cultural programs and entertainment, whereas the Florence Melton Adult Mini School, a project of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, provides the opportunity for both Jews and non-Jews to learn more about Judaism.
The Jewish Summer Festival organized by the Hungarian Jewish Community has, by now, become one of the most important cultural art events of the summer, one that allows visitors to gain a glimpse into a culture they are not familiar with.
Finally, the Internet also provides a wide range of possibilities to search for and establish contacts with Judaism. Aside from providing an opportunity to study and ask anonymously and facelessly, certain websites such as www.judapest.org or www.pilpul.net have become “Alterjew” (alternative Jewish) intellectual forums, where politics, arts, culture and religion are discussed, representing a perhaps non-mainstream Jewish standpoint in public affairs. 

Picture: Traffic passes by behind a Budapest’s Neologue Frankel Synagogue that is hidden in the yard of a residential building in district II of Buda