Hungary’s Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjn and Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger were among the 1500 people who participated earlier this month y at the dedication celebration of the newly restored Obuda Synagogue in central Budapest.
Appropriated by the former communist government and used as a studio for state-run TV in 1960, the 400-seat synagogue – the oldest in the country- stood for years as a reminder of the plunder and pillage of Jewish life in Hungary.
In his speech, the Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister stressed the significance of the event, particularly to the Hungarian government.
Though communism formally ended in Hungary 20 years ago, he said, the reopening of the Obuda Synagogue to be used for Jewish life, was symbolic of the real end to communism.
"Every house of prayer, regardless of religion, represents the human being’s connection with G-d," Zsolt Semjn said. "Everyone has a need to have a connection with his Creator, so taking away synagogue takes away the individual’s freedom to have this bond."
"This is the moment—when the Torah is installed—that makes the building a synagogue, a sanctuary," Rabbi Shlomo Koves, Chabad’s representative in Budapest and rabbi of the synagogue, said.
"It will be, and is already, the city’s Chabad center," said Koves.
Built in 1820, it will continue to carry its original name, Kehal Adas Yehsurin, but now also, with the addition of Beit Knesset Chabad-Lubavitch.
At its height in 1940, Hungary’s Jewish community counted about 800,000 Jews. Budapest had 125 synagogues. Most Jews were exterminated by the Nazis.
Around 50,000 Jews live today in Hungary.