Hungary

Szia and welcome to Hungary!

(Szia is Hungarian for hello and goodbye and is conveniently pronounced as “see ya”).

I immediately fell in love with Budapest. I think it is impossible to dislike this country boasting soothing thermal spas, delicious goulash, and an intriguing paprika obsession. Take for example Lángos, a Hungarian specialty consisting of Hungarian fried dough, sour cream, and cheese. Three delicious ingredients that when combined make for the best street food.

Their metro stations are quite adorable.

Hungary is also home to many innovators who produced inventions such as the Rubik’s cube, the holography, the ball point pen, etc. Hungarians also claim one of the most difficult languages in the world, an Uralic language in the same language family as Finnish and Estonian. However, for me, the most fascinating piece of Hungarian, more specifically Budapest, history can be told through its surviving Jewish sites.

The Great Synagogue or Dohany Street Synagogue was built by the Neolog Hungarian Jewish community in 1854 and is the still the largest synagogue in Europe. The Neologs, a reform movement within Hungarian Judaism, were more willing to assimilate into Hungarian society and, therefore, Ludwig Förster, a Viennese architect, built it in a Moorish style, quite unlike traditional synagogues. It is also said to have been somewhat based on biblical descriptions of the Temple of Solomon. The most unique synagogue I have seen: stained glass windows, long rows of pews and kneelers, chandeliers, etc. Fun fact: Franz Liszt was the first to play the organ at the synagogue’s inauguration. The Dohany Street Synagogue stands on the border of the former Jewish ghetto and was used as a Nazi radio tower and Adolf Eichman’s headquarters in Budapest during the war thus sparing it from being completely destroyed.

Next to the synagogue is a cemetery of mass graves of more than 2,000 Jews buried after the Soviet liberation of the city. 

This beautiful memorial, the “Tree of Life”, was built as an upside down menorah. Each of the 4,000 leaves has a Holocaust victim’s name on it, and additional leaves are added frequently.

Deeper into the Jewish quarter is the Orthodox synagogue, a Talmud school, a multitude of kosher shops and butchers, and the only remaining mikvah in the city. According to my tour guide, the mikvah was incredibly expensive as they cleaned the pipes out with kosher wine and hired an American supervisor for the project who demanded on being flown home every Thursday to be with his family on Shabbat. On my morning walk to take more pictures I spotted an early morning matzo delivery.

Of course, the Jewish quarter is now home to the famous Budapest Ruin Pubs that are scattered throughout the district. Every pub was transformed from a previously abandoned building, and each has its own quirky decorations incorporating a hodgepodge of items-anything from cars to computer monitors to bathtubs to...well anything you can think of.

Budapest is divided into Buda and Pest by the Danube River which runs from Germany through Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade all the way to the Black Sea. On the banks of the river, I found the most touching memorial I have encountered on my trip. It was built specifically to remember those Jews who were ordered to take off their shoes before being shot and thrown into the Danube by the Arrow Cross fascists in 1944-5. 

Further down the Danube near the Parliament building is a controversial memorial to the Holocaust erected by the Hungarian government last year. The monument depicts a German eagle attacking the Archangel Gabriel (Hungary). 

Many groups have criticized the monument, arguing that it downplays the large role Hungary played in the Holocaust. As I walked by, I noticed an ongoing protest with memorial stones, photos, and other personal effects meant to urge the Hungarian government to remove the monument.

It is not often that I am given any insight into the political topics that the society of the country I am visiting is grappling with. Stumbling upon these sites gave me a lot to ponder on my bus ride to Vienna: my next stop.