Budapest's stunning new synagogue renovation - Rumbach Street

Rumbach St Synagogue

The Great Dohány St Synagogue was built in 1854-9 in the Moorish Rev­iv­al style, with decoration based on Islam­ic models from North Africa and medieval Spain. This historical building in Budapest’s 7th district, is the largest synagogue in Eur­ope, seating 3,000 people! The Viennese architect, Ludwig Christian Förster, was known for build­ing both synagogue and churches. He wasn’t familiar with any distinct­ive­ly Jewish architecture so he chose arch­itect­ural forms once used by oriental ethnic groups close to Jews.

Great Dohány St Synagogue

Dohany St Synagogue was damaged by aerial raids during the Nazi Occupation, especially during the Siege of Budapest. Thankfully during the Communist era the damaged structure could be used again as a synagogue for Jewish survivors.

The Rumbach St Synagogue was also special, this one being design­ed by famous ar­ch­itect Otto Wagner. Completed between 1869-72, the to­w­ering Moorish struc­ture with 2 minaret-type towers enclosed a symm­et­rical facade. On­ce housing a vib­rant congregation, the Rumbach St Syn­ag­­ogue is only 300 ms from Dohány St Synagogue. Rumbach Synagogue, named for the street on which it stands in Budapest’s historical old town of Pest, formerly the Jewish-majority 7th district. It predated the trendy cafes and bars that sprung up in recent years.

In 1941 the synagogue became a deportation point for 20,000 Jews, refugees who fled southward after the Nazi in­vasion of Poland, as well as Jews liv­ing in Hungary for decades without proper pap­ers. The de­p­ortees were taken to Southern Poland and massacred in Kameniec-Podolsk by the SS. Later Hit­ler occupied Hungary and the Fascist Arrow Cross seized power in Mar 1944. The new govern­ment resumed the dep­ort­ation of Hung­arian cit­izens on trains to the exter­min­ation camps. Note that the Hun­garian Nazis were feared in the extreme.

Eventually the building’s roof rotted thr­ough and birds moved into the sanctuary. In 1979 the roof totally collapsed and the col­ourfully paint­ed wall panels were al­most com­pletely faded. There was a big fear that it would collapse, or that the government then would raze it to the ground.

Cantor Immanuel Zucker, reopening ceremony, June 2021.

No pews put in yet.

The abandoned synagogue sat decaying in the city’s heart for 60+ years. After changing hands often, the building was re­t­urn­ed to the Jewish community by the Hungarian gov­ernment in 2006. Sin­ce 2014, its renovation has proceeded irregularly as the community dealt with logistics, funding and finally the pandemic. Thankfully the 8-sided Moorish Rev­ival synagogue has since been restored. The oc­tagonal, bal­conied, dom­ed synagogue intricately patterned and coloured a la Islam­ic structures is very beautiful.

In June 2021 dozens of members of the Hungarian Jewish community danc­ed around Bud­a­pest’s busy Karoly boulevard, accompanied by instruments playing joyful music. Their destin­ation, Rumbach Synagogue, was loc­at­ed down a quiet side street not far from Great Dohany St shule. And though the jubilant procession marking the Rum­bach’s rededic­at­ion started in Dohany Synagogue’s gar­den, event organ­is­ers moved around 7th district.

Inside the richly renovated synagogue, congregants admired the ornate, hand-painted red, blue and gold panels adorning the sanctuary walls as boys carried the Torah scroll to the restored Ark. Nearly two storeys tall, it nevertheless reaches under halfway to the magnific­ent domed ceiling. Giant gold columns support Eastern-style arches lit by stain­ed glass windows 10’ in diameter. In the centre of the synagogue hall, a golden cir­cle hid a hydraulic-driven elevating cantor’s dias, mixing the old with the new. The sprawling compound behind the decadent patt­ern­ed brick facade envelops either side of the enormous sanct­uary.

The Rumbach’s grand reopening was the result of years of negotiations, patience, and an $11.2 million grant from the Hungarian state. The ev­ent was attended by Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, Israeli Amb­as­sad­or to Hungary Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, Hungarian Minister of Famil­ies Katalin Novak, and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who met and thanked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban afterwards.
  

Interior of the dome

stained glass windows

Government funding was conditional on the space being used by everyone as a non-denominational cultural centre during weekdays for the next five years. In addition to its relig­ious function, the newly renovated Rum­bach emerged as a multiple cult­ur­al centre welcom­ing all faiths liv­­ing in the city, plus vis­it­ors to Budapest. The old rabbi and rab­b­in­­ic­al assistant’s quarters are now a kosher café, paying respect to the city’s history of coffee culture.

The non-profit hub on the upper floor provide office space to c20 Jewish and non-Jewish organisations, charities, youth groups and the country’s only professional Jewish theatre company. They’ll also host music, theatre and art exhib­itions, and is equipped with lighting, sound, a staging area and dres­sing rooms. A multi-media exhibition space on the third floor shows the history and curr­ent life of Hung­ar­ian Jewry, and uses the notable media family, the Pulitzers, as an example of Jewish inte­g­ration and contribution to Hungarian society. 

     

colourful mosaics patterns, patterned bricks and gold columns

Photo credits: Times of Israel