Busy Day in the Jewish District

Sunday, May 6

We got up and out fairly early this morning.  We had to meet the Free Jewish District Tour at 10:00 am.  Along the way we took pictures with a bronze sculpture featuring Peter Falk as his most well known character, “Columbo”.  We also took pictures with a bronze of Ronald Reagan.

(Asking Columbo to Put Out His Cigar)

It seems odd to see a sculpture of Peter Falk in Budapest but he appears to have some tenuous relationship to a well known Hungarian by the name of Miksa Falk.  It doesn’t really matter if it’s true or not.  Who isn’t a fan of Lieutenant Columbo?  Ronald Reagan’s sculpture is contained within Liberty Square and commemorates his contribution to the end of the cold war.  Fittingly there is a nice view of the Parliament building over his shoulder.

(Meeting Ronald Reagan)

Our tour of the Jewish District was led by an enthusiastic young Hungarian man whose main job is teaching English and French at a local high school.  He said that he likes to do these tours on the weekend.  As the tour went on we found out that he is very active in the Jewish community in Budapest and is passionate about all types of education.  We could’t have chosen a better guide.

Like most tours our guide started by telling us some general information about the district and soon we were heading over to the main attraction: The Great Synagogue of Budapest also known as The Dohány Street Synagogue.  Built in just four years and completed in 1859 it is the third largest synagogue in the world.  It was built by the Neolog sect, which only exists in Hungary.

Before World War II Hungary had a large and thriving Jewish community but that is no longer the case.  Over 600,000 Hungarian Jews died during the war.  One quarter of those who died in Auschwitz were from Hungary.  A small number of the Neolog sect survived the war.  The entire conservative sect was killed off and their synagogue now stands empty and unused.  Recently work has begun to restore and renovate that synagogue and it will be turned in to a Jewish Ethnographic Museum.  It should be open sometime next year.  A third synagogue still exists in the district.  It belongs to the Orthodox sect.

Our guide also talked about modern life in the district.  The area is well known for street art and he showed us some of the most famous examples.  We passed a number of restaurants and he gave us his recommendations of pastries and other foods to try.  The tour ended at a ruin bar called Szimpla Kert.

Ruin Bars are unique to Budapest and only exist within the district.  When the Soviets left there were many unused and dilapidated buildings.  Some enterprising people decided to convert these spaces into pubs.  The first and most famous pub is named Szimpla Kert.  The bar is huge and encompasses two full floors.  The downstairs has a courtyard and a market where you can buy fruits and vegetables as well as meats and cheeses.  On the weekend they have a buffet style brunch.  We bought a loaf of a homemade, artisanal bread (it turned out to be sourdough, yeah!) and some homemade sausages.

After the tour we ate lunch in what amounts to an outdoor food court.  A number of food trucks setup in an alley in the Jewish District each day and serve some of the most interesting fare you can find.  We shared a burger served on a bun made of langós.  It was dressed with tomatoes, roasted peppers, rucola and a lamb’s cheese that was similar to feta.  For dessert we had a waffle that was covered in chocolate pudding and bananas.  We’ll be back to try some of their other ‘delicacies’.  We never took a picture of our burger so this is a picture from the food truck…

(Langós Burger)

Fully refreshed we went back to tour The Great Synagogue.  It’s a large complex with two synagogues, a museum and a number of memorials.  The large synagogue is mostly used as a showcase for tourists.  Today’s Neolog community consists of only about 500 families and they use the adjacent, smaller synagogue for Friday and Saturday services.  We were not permitted to see inside that building.

The outside of the main building was designed in a Oriental/Moorish style.  It has onion domes and towers that are reminiscent of minarets.  The interior is grand.  It is long and wide and has two levels of balconies.  More than 3,000 people can be seated inside.  The building is often used for secular concerts and performances during the year.

(Inside the Great Synagogue)

Just outside you can find the memorial cemetery.  It’s unheard of to have a cemetery near a Jewish house of worship but this one has it’s origins in World War II.  When the Soviets entered the city in 1945 they found thousands of dead bodies in the Jewish Ghetto.  It was a public health nightmare.  There was no time to bury them individually nor was there time to identify them.  The Soviets buried the bodies in 22 mass graves next to the synagogue.  Over the years tremendous efforts have been made to identify the people in the cemetery and headstones have been created for the ones who have been identified.  Mulberry trees, which are sacred to the Jewish people, are planted throughout the area.

There is also a memorial garden where you find a metallic tree of life whose leaves contain the names of all of the fallen.  Some of the leaves have been left blank as a symbol that, to this day, the names of many of the dead are still unknown.  The tree is designed in the shape of an upside-down menorah.  Nearby is another memorial for all of those who helped save Hungarian Jews during the war.

(The Tree of Life)

We also visited the museum.  The collection was large, diverse and interesting.     We’ll just shout out a few of the things we liked the most.  We really loved one of the passover seder plates.  It was made of silver, had several slots for matzos and the top had figurines for the festival foods.

(Silver Seder Plate)

The museum also had a note from a man named Jenö Reich.  The note had been thrown from an Auschwitz bound train.  Miraculously it founds its way to his family.  The note was used as evidence in Adolf Eichman’s trial.

Fun Fact: Theodor Herzl, who is considered the father of the Jewish State of Israel, was born in a house that stood on the grounds of the present day synagogue.  That house no longer exists but there is a plaque on the site commemorating that fact.

Distance walked: 7.7 miles

2 Replies to “Busy Day in the Jewish District”

  1. I believe in the 80/20 rule. you know, where 80 of all reward comes from 20 of the effort? Well, I believe your blog is that 20. I’ve added you to the list of sites that I frequent. Thank you for the in depth and detailed blog posts. Not many people are willing to do that anymore.

    1. Thank you for the kind words. I am surprised to see that the blog is being read by someone other than close friends and family. It is really just meant as a personal diary so that we can remember some of the details of our travels when we’re (even more) old and gray. I’m glad that you’re getting some value out of it.

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