The Jewish Quarter: Jewish History, Eastern Europe

Great Synagogue, Budapest, Hungary

The Great Synagogue is on Dohany Street, so sometimes is known as the Dohany Synagogue. See www.bh.org.il/Communities/Synagogue/budapest.asp.

The synagogue at Jerusalem is larger, then this, then the Great Synagogue at Plzen, CZ. See Czech Republic Road Ways. But this site says it is second only to Temple Emanual in New York City. See www.sacred-destinations.com/hungary/budapest-dohany-street-synagogue. More photos of the graves and Holocaust memorial on the way.

The Jewish Quarter is a mid-length walk from the riverfront, but hard to identify.
The old Quarter has few landmarks. Follow the map to get there, and there may or may not see anything identifable except the synagogue-museum, see below. We did see a few persons in Orthodox dress, but not many. What is haunting is what is not there.

So go to the virtual history tour of the area at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Budapest. See the fine photographer David Pride's slides thumbnails of Budapest at www.davidpride.com/Europe/Hungary/Hungary_index.


Old Jewish Quarter, Budapest, plot now a children's playground

Much of the old Jewish Quarter is now something else, like this playground amid the destruction of other buildings, and I do not know which if any are war-related, or just urban renewal. We just know that there are few Jewish buildings or centers.














Spinoza House, Budapest, Jewish Quarter, Hungary

 This is the Spinoza house, with the 17th Century philosopher on the plaque at the entry, and in the Jewish Quarter, reached by following the streets on any map away from the Old Town.
It is a cultural center founded by groups from The Netherlands. Concerts, theatre. Cafe.

The posts on Magyar origins notes that the Magyars converted to Judaism, and then centuries later, to Catholicism. What were those circumstances? The Inquisition where it was convert or die or be expelled from your lands? Or voluntary, a drawing toward another belief?

Are Magyars connected at all with the Khazars - see current research and discussion about Russian Jews being descended from the Khazars, whose roots are not the Jewish peoples in Europe - Germany, Portugal, Spain, etc. See www.khazaria.com/khazar-diaspora. That site reviews the book, "Are Eastern European Jews Descended from the Khazars," by Kevin Alan Brook.