Historic and Great Synagogues of Europe: Great Synagogue in Dohány Street – Budapest, Hungary

The Great Synagogue in Dohány Street is the largest synagogue in both Hungary and Europe.  Built in Moorish Revival style between 1854 and 1859, at a time when there were an estimated 30,000 Jews in Pest, this synagogue is affiliated with the Hungarian Neolog movement.  Neolog Judaism is a reform Jewish movement somewhat similar to American Conservative Judaism.  It is interesting to note that the Neolog Jews gave up their native Yiddish language in favor of the national language, Hungarian.

The Dohány Street Synagogue is modeled after Moorish structures in North Africa and Spain and originally held a crowd of 2,964 seats.  1,492 of these seats were located in the main hall and were reserved for men, while there was a comfortable women’s gallery on the second floor where 1,472 seats were strictly reserved for women.

When I visited the Synagogue in June 2008, I was astonished by its vastness.  The Synagogue is striking in its resemblance of a Catholic Church and seems almost Cathedral-like.  There are two ornate balconys for women and even an organ.

During World War II, Hungary was allied with Germany.  At this time there were about 184,000 Jews in Budapest, along with an additional 62,000 people considered Jews under Nazi racial laws.  About 15,000 Jews from Budapest were killed in Hungarian work camps before the Nazis invaded in May 1944. After the German Nazi invasion, a Jewish ghetto was formed in Budapest, and up to 20,000 Jews were forced to reside in the Great Synagogue complex.  In the winter of 1944-1945, about 7,000 Jews living in the complex died of hunger and disease.

In the courtyard behind the synagogue is a Memorial for all the Jews killed in pre-World War II Hungarian lands in the Holocaust. Of the estimated 825,000 Hungarian Jews before the war, about 63,000 died before the Nazi invasion, and more than 500,000 died of starvation, malnutrition or were murdered after the German invasion by the Nazis.

After the War and under Communist control, the Great Synagogue was neglected, had its windows vandalized and was finally boarded up.  In 1991, following the collapse of Communism, the synagogue was greatly restored.  Today it is one of Budapest’s most visited sites.

Budapest is an amazing city and a visit here is an opportunity of a lifetime!

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Shabbat services are held every Friday evening at 18:00 and Saturday Morning at 9:00 am.

Other related pages:

Historic and Great Synagogues of Europe: New Synagogue -- Berlin, Germany

Wonders of Prague: Historic and Great Synagogues of Europe -- Jubilee Synagogue in Jerusalem Street -- Prague, Czech Republic