Sunday in Budapest

Sunday

Still raining, but not as hard. Weather has turned a bit colder and windy. But the synagogue is not a long walk. There is a long line for tickets – this must be the thing to do on Sunday morning. 

This synagogue is the largest in Europe, second in size only to the one in NY. The outside looks a bit like mosque and the inside definitely looks like a church. It was finished in 1859 during a period when Jews were trying to “fit in”. They had just transitioned from a nation apart to considering themselves Hungarian first and Jewish second. 

The central chandeliers are part of the recent remodeling that was done in 1998, after the fall of the Communist regime. In winter it was too dark. The synagogue seats 3000 people, 1500 on the first floor and another 1500 in the 2 balconies that surround the main floor. In early times the women sat upstairs. Now they sit on the sides while the men sit in the middle area. The guide called this congregation a “neuelog”, meaning new dialogue. It fits somewhere between the Orthodox and Conservative movements and started back when the synagogue was built.

The tour includes the memorial garden where 2500 Jews who perished during the Nazi occupation are buried in a group of mass graves. Normally, Jewish cemeteries are not located next to a synagogue, but they really had no other option. There is a beautiful willow tree sculpture in the courtyard that was donated by Tony Curtis. The leaves contain the names of people who died in the Holocaust. And a memorial stone for Raul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved 2000 Hungarian Jews by providing them with Swedish passports.

Willow Tree

There is also a small museum next door with artifacts from the 1800s and earlier grouped by Jewish holiday. Mainly silver. Fortunately for us, the tags are in English as well as Hungarian and Hebrew.

On the way back we noticed this Cafe

We went back to the Garlosky Café for lunch. I finally got to try the goulash – which is a soup, not a stew. It’s got beef, potatoes and carrots in a red broth. Pretty good along with the ciabatta with olives that is made on the premises. We passed up the crepes – again – and headed back to the hotel to decide whether to go back out in the rain and go up to the castle. It’s nice and warm in here. Maybe on the way back?  And we finally got nthe pictures to behave. More or less.