Dohány Street Synagogue

The Dohány Street Synagogue (magyar. Dohány utcai zsinagóga/nagy zsinagóga, עברית. בית הכנסת הגדול של בודפשט bet hakneset hagadol šel budapešt), also known as The Great Synagogue or Tabakgasse Synagogue, is located in Erzsébetváros, the 7th district of Budapest. It is the largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest in the world. It seats 3,000 people and is a centre of Neolog Judaism.

The synagogue was built between 1854 and 1859 in the Moorish Revival style, with the decoration based chiefly on Islamic models from North Africa and medieval Spain (the Alhambra). The synagogue's Viennese architect, Ludwig Förster, believed that no distinctively Jewish architecture could be identified, and thus chose "architectural forms that have been used by oriental ethnic groups that are related to the Israelite people, and in particular the Arabs". The interior design is partly by Frigyes Feszl.

The Dohány Street Synagogue complex consists of the Great Synagogue, the Heroes' Temple, the graveyard, the Memorial and the Jewish Museum, which was built on the site on which Theodore Herzl's house of birth stood. Dohány Street itself, a leafy street in the city center, carries strong Holocaust connotations as it constituted the border of the Budapest Ghetto.

History

Built in a residential area between 1854-1859 by the Neolog Jewish community of Pest according to the plans of Ludwig Förster, the monumental synagogue has a capacity of 2,964 seats (1,492 for men and 1,472 in the women's galleries) making it the largest in Europe and one of the largest working synagogue in the World, after the Belz Great Synagogue and the Beit Midrash of Ger in Jerusalem, the Breslov Uman Synagogue in Uman, Ukraine, Temple Emanu-el in New York City, and the Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue in New York City. The consecration of the synagogue took place on 6 September 1859.

The synagogue was bombed by the Hungarian pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party on 3 February 1939. Used as a base for German Radio and also as a stable during World War II, the building suffered some severe damage from aerial raids during the Nazi Occupation but especially during the Siege of Budapest. During the Communist era the damaged structure became again a prayer house for the much-diminished Jewish community. Its restoration started in 1991 and ended in 1998. The restoration was financed by the state and by private donations.

Architecture

Exterior

The building is Шаблон:Convert long and Шаблон:Convert wide. The style of the Dohány Street Synagogue is Moorish but its design also features a mixture of Byzantine, Romantic and Gothic elements. Two onion-shaped domes sit on the twin octagonal towers at Шаблон:Convert height. A rose stained-glass window sits over the main entrance.

Similarly to basilicas, the building consists of three spacious richly decorated aisles, two balconies and, unusually, an organ. Its ark contains various torah scrolls taken from other synagogues destroyed during the HolocaustШаблон:Citation needed.

The Central Synagogue in Manhattan, New York City is a near-exact copy of the Dohány Street Synagogue.

Interior

The torah-ark and the internal frescoes made of colored and golden geometric shapes are the works of the famous Hungarian romantic architect Frigyes Feszl. A single-span cast iron supports the Шаблон:Convert nave. The seats on the ground-floor are for men, while the upper gallery, supported by steel ornamented poles, has seats for women.

Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns played the original 5,000 pipe organ built in 1859. A new mechanical organ with 63 voices and 4 manuals was built in 1996 by the German firm Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden GmbH. One of the most daring concerts in the Synagogue's history was in 2002, played by the legendary organ virtuoso Xaver Varnus. Four hours before the concert even standing places could hardly be found in the Synagogue, and 7,200 people were sitting and standing to listen to the legendary improvisor’s fiendish virtuosity. Шаблон:Gallery

Renovation

It was only in the 1990s, following the return to democracy in Hungary, that renovations could begin. The three-year program of reconstruction was largely funded by a US$ 5 million donation from Hungarian Jewish American Estée Lauder and was completed in 1996.

Synagogue complex

Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was constructed on the plot where Theodor Herzl's two-story Classicist style house used to stand, adjoining the Dohány synagogue. The Jewish Museum was built in 1930 in accordance with the synagogue's architectural style and attached in 1931 to the main building. It holds the Jewish Religious and Historical Collection, a collection of religious relics of the Pest Hevrah Kaddishah (Jewish Burial Society), ritual objects of Shabbat and the High Holidays and a Holocaust room.

Heroes' Temple

The arcade and the Heroes' Temple, which seats 250 people and is used for religious services on weekdays and during the winter time, was added the Dohány Street Synagogue complex in 1931. The Heroes' Temple was designed by Lázlo Vágó and Ferenc Faragó and serves as a memorial to Hungarian Jews who gave their lives during World War I.

Jewish Cemetery

In 1944, the Dohány Street Synagogue was part of the Jewish Ghetto for the city Jews and served as shelter for a lot of people. Over two thousand of those who died in the ghetto from hunger and cold during the winter 1944-1945 are buried in the courtyard of the synagogue.

It is not customary to have a cemetery next to a synagogue, the establishment of the 3000 m2 cemetery was the result of historical circumstances. In 1944, as a part of the Eichmann-plan, 70.000 Jews were relocated to the Ghetto of Pest. Until January 18, 1945, when the Russians liberated the ghetto, around 8-10.000 people had died, although, one part of the deceased were transferred to the Kozma Street Cemetery, but 2.000 people were buried in the makeshift cemetery. In memory of those who had died, there is a memorial by the sculptor, Imre Varga, depicting a weeping willow with the names and tattoo numbers of the dead and disappeared just behind the Synagogue, in the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park.

Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park

The Raoul Wallenberg Emlékpark (memory park) in the rear courtyard holds the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs — at least 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Made by Imre Varga, it resembles a weeping willow whose leaves bear inscriptions with the names of victims. There is also a memorial to Wallenberg and other Righteous Among the Nations, among them: Swiss Vice-consul Carl Lutz; Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian man who, with a strategic escamotage, declared himself the Spanish consul, releasing documents of protection and current passports to Jews in Budapest without distinction (he saved five thousand); Mons. Angelo Rotta, an Italian Prelate Bishop and Apostolic Nuncio of the State of Vatican City in Budapest, which issued protective sheets, misrepresentations of baptism (to save them from forced labor) and Vatican passports to Jews, without distinction of any kind present in Budapest (saving fifteen thousand), who saved, with his secretary Mons. Gennaro Verolino tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II.

Trivia

means tobacco in Hungarian, a loan word from Ottoman Turkish دخان (duhân), itself borrowed from Arabic دخان (duxân). A similar Turkish loanword for tobacco is used throughout the Balkans (e.g. duhan in Bosnian/Croatian).

Theodor Herzl in his speeches and the Jewish Encyclopedia referred to the Dohány Street Synagogue as the Tabakgasse Synagogue. The Dohány Street Synagogue is also known under the name of the Tabak-Shul, the Yiddish translation of Synagogue.

Anti-Semitic attacks

On October 23, 2012, an Israeli flag was burned in front of a Budapest synagogue, reportedly by members of Jobbik, an ultranationalist Hungarian political party.

See also

  • Ujpest Synagogue
  • Synagogues built in the Moorish Revival style:

References

Notes

Шаблон:Reflist

Bibliography

Шаблон:Refbegin

Шаблон:Refend

External links

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Carl Griffin
31 December 2015
The world's largest synagogue outside of New York. Has both Romantic and Moorish architectural elements. Contains a holocaust memorial room relating to the events of 1944-45.
Catarina Cabral
25 November 2013
Biggest synagogue in Europe, really amazing on the inside. It has a Jewish Museum and a Memorial to the Victims of the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships. You can have a guided tour. It's worth a visit.
Natalie Ireland
21 November 2014
Beautiful building, moving memorial and a lovely sculpture at the back. Perhaps not enough to see for the money. Maybe do the tour if you're really interested in the story and history.
Fluying ✅
19 September 2016
The 2nd biggest synagogue worldwide, it's construction was commissioned to a Gentile and (vaguely) designed according to the biblical descriptions of Salomon's Temple. Tours are recommended and cheap
Julia Konkova
9 June 2017
Узнали много нового для себя! Внутри синагоги напротив лавочек стоят таблички с флагами, мы сели рядом с российским флагом и через 5 минут подошёл русскоговорящий гид и провел для нас экскурсию.
Vicente Martinez
25 August 2017
Fue genial que tuvieran visita guiada en castellano, ya que todo se entiende mejor. La Sinagoga como edificio está genial, una buena arquitectura. No obstante, el precio algo elevado.
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