Erzsébetváros: Europe’s Oldest Living Jewish Quarter

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Jews settled in Buda in the twelfth century, but in Pest only after Emperor Joseph II’s Edict of Toleration in 1781, which allowed them to leave the ghetto of Óbuda. The first Pest community settled around what is now Király utca and Madách tér, forming a historic Theresienstadt — originally a Jewish quarter of the city known as Terézváros, later divided into Erzsébetváros (the seventh district, the historic Jewish quarter) and Terézváros (the sixth, mixed).

The golden age of Erzsébetváros came in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and legal emancipation, Hungarian Jews took part in the Magyarisation of the Empire — most adopted Hungarian as a household language, many changed names to Hungarian forms, and they identified as "Magyars of the Mosaic faith". The Budapest community grew rapidly: from 16,000 in 1840 to 200,000 by 1910 — twenty-three per cent of the city’s population. Erzsébetváros became the heart of this population, with three principal synagogues: Dohány (built 1854-1859 in the Moorish style, the second-largest synagogue in the world, 2,964 seats), Rumbach (1872, designed by Otto Wagner, of status quo affiliation) and Kazinczy (1913, Orthodox). Twenty smaller shtiblach besides.

A distinctive feature of Hungarian Judaism was its formal division into three streams officially recognised by the state: Neolog (moderately reformed, comparable to the American Conservative movement), status quo (between reform and orthodoxy) and Orthodox. Dohány — Neolog. Rumbach — status quo. Kazinczy — Orthodox. All three within 300 metres. Out of the Hungarian community came Theodor Herzl (born in Budapest in 1860 on Dohány Street — a memorial plaque opposite the main synagogue marks the site), Max Nordau, Joseph Pulitzer, the composer Karl Goldmark, the physicist Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard and Edward Teller (the entire "Martian" group of twentieth-century atomic physicists).

The interwar years were a paradox for Hungarian Jews. On the one hand, full integration and dominant positions in commerce, law, medicine and the media (most Budapest newspapers were published by Jewish publishers). On the other, a rising legislative antisemitism: the numerus clausus law of 1920 (the first in Europe to restrict Jewish access to universities) and the Jewish Laws of 1938-1941 (Numerus Nullus, a ban on mixed marriages, expropriations). Even so, until 1944 Hungary’s Jews remained the last large community in Europe untouched by German deportations — Admiral Miklós Horthy refused to extradite Hungarian citizens.

Everything changed on 19 March 1944, when the Wehrmacht occupied Hungary and Adolf Eichmann arrived personally in Budapest to organise the deportation of 700,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. In just fifty-six days (15 May - 9 July 1944), 437,000 people were deported from the provinces. Most were murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau on arrival — without selection for labour. The pace of the action was without precedent in the history of the Holocaust.

Budapest itself was — extraordinarily — spared until October 1944. Horthy attempted to suspend deportations under pressure from the Vatican, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. On 16 October 1944, the Arrow Cross (Hungarian fascists) seized power and began their terror in Erzsébetváros — two ghettos were set up: the international (under the protection of neutral legations, Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz issued thousands of "protective passports") and the large ghetto in Erzsébetváros (70,000 people confined within a few streets). Between October 1944 and January 1945, the Arrow Cross murdered tens of thousands of Jews on the banks of the Danube — the shootings at the "place of shoes" commemorated today by Gyula Pauer’s installation of sixty pairs of iron shoes along the bank opposite Parliament.

Of Budapest’s 200,000 Jewish residents, Soviet liberation on 18 January 1945 found around 119,000 — the highest survival rate of any major city under German occupation. After the war many emigrated (Aliyah, the United States, the wave of 1956), but Budapest remained one of the largest Jewish centres in Europe. Today the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ) officially has around 10,000 registered members, but the wider community — including secular and unregistered Jews and those of the third generation — is estimated at 80,000-100,000 in Budapest alone. Three principal synagogues in Erzsébetváros are active (Dohány, Rumbach after its 2021 restoration, Kazinczy), together with eight smaller ones. Two Jewish schools, the JCC Bálint Ház, the Holocaust Centre and the Jewish Museum all operate.

A full visit to Jewish Erzsébetváros takes four to five hours on foot. The whole quarter lies within eight streets of the seventh district of Pest (Dohány, Rumbach Sebestyén, Kazinczy, Király, Wesselényi, Síp, Erzsébet körút). We recommend starting at the Dohány utcai zsinagóga (the Great Synagogue) at ten in the morning. The complex includes: the main synagogue (visiting permitted, thirty minutes), the Jewish Museum and Archive in the adjoining building (Theodor Herzl was born in the house on whose site the museum now stands, ninety minutes), the Ghetto Memorial (the Raoul Wallenberg Emanuel Park within the synagogue courtyard, Imre Varga’s "Tree of Life" with 4,500 metal leaves bearing victims’ names), and the ghetto cemetery against the synagogue wall (where 2,000 Jews who died of starvation in the 1944-1945 ghetto are buried).

From there, five minutes on foot along Rumbach Sebestyén to the Rumbach Synagogue — designed by Otto Wagner in 1872 and restored in 2021. Today it is accessible as a museum with an exhibition on the history of the Budapest community. Two minutes onward to Kazinczy utca — the Kazinczy Street Synagogue of 1913, Orthodox and still active. Beside it stand the kosher restaurant Carmel and the Glatt kosher shops.

In the same neighbourhood — the Wallenberg Museum in the Glass House (Üvegház) on Vadász utca 29, six minutes on foot to the west. The Glass House is the building where the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg sheltered three thousand Budapest Jews in 1944 under the "protective" status of the Swedish legation. The exhibition tells the rescue work of Wallenberg, Carl Lutz (Swiss legation) and other diplomats of neutral states.

The second part of the route — the memorial Shoes on the Danube Bank (Cipők a Duna-parton) by Parliament. Five minutes by V-Class from Dohány or fifteen on foot. Gyula Pauer’s installation (2005) — sixty pairs of iron shoes cast in 1940s styles, along forty metres of the riverside promenade. It commemorates the mass shootings on the Danube bank by the Arrow Cross in the winter of 1944-1945. The route ends — optionally — at the Holocaust Centre (Holokauszt Emlékközpont) on Páva utca 39 (ninth district, twenty minutes by V-Class), with a full exhibition on the Hungarian Shoah.

For meals afterwards — Király utca and Kazinczy utca offer kosher and Israeli cuisine: Carmel (kosher meat), Hanna (kosher dairy), Frici Papa (traditional Hungarian with Jewish options), and the famous ruin pubs of Erzsébetváros (Szimpla Kert on Kazinczy) for those drawn to the contemporary culture of the district.

Contemporary Jewish life in Budapest is the richest in Central and Eastern Europe. The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Magyarországi Zsidó Hitközségek Szövetsége, MAZSIHISZ) has 10,000 registered members, but the broader community — including secular and unregistered Jews and those of the third generation — numbers 80,000-100,000 in Budapest alone, the majority in Erzsébetváros, Lipótváros (fifth district) and Újlipótváros (thirteenth). Three principal synagogues in Erzsébetváros (Dohány, Rumbach, Kazinczy) plus eight smaller ones. Two Jewish schools (Lauder Javne and Szász Ferenc), three nurseries, a yeshiva.

The JCC Bálint Ház on Révay utca 16 (sixth district), open since 1995, runs daily cultural, sporting and educational programmes. The Jewish Summer Festival (Zsidó Nyári Fesztivál) — annually since 1998, in August and September — brings klezmer concerts, culinary workshops and film screenings. The Dohány Synagogue Festival hosts chamber concerts in the main synagogue. The Holocaust Centre (Páva utca 39) and the Jewish Museum and Archive at Dohány form two educational pillars.

A visit to the Dohány utcai zsinagóga requires a ticket (the complex: synagogue plus Jewish Museum plus courtyard with memorials — 9,000 HUF, around £20). We recommend booking online in advance (spring and summer mean queues). Opening hours: Sunday-Thursday 10:00-18:00 (April-October) or 10:00-16:00 (November-March), Friday 10:00-14:00 year-round, closed Saturday and Jewish holidays. Rumbach Synagogue — separate ticket, similar hours. Kazinczy Synagogue — entry only during services or by prior arrangement with the congregation.

Etiquette in the synagogues: men with a kippah (at Dohány — a paper one is included in the ticket price, at Kazinczy — bring your own). Women in modest dress. At Dohány — separate women’s gallery (in line with Neolog tradition). At Kazinczy — full separation (Orthodox). Photography is allowed inside Dohány without flash; at Kazinczy it requires consent.

Kosher kitchens under supervision of the Budapest Orthodox rabbinate: Carmel Restaurant on Kazinczy 31 (meat, glatt kosher, of the highest standard — open Sunday to Thursday 12:00-22:00, Friday until 16:00, Saturday evening after Shabbat), Hanna on Dob utca 35 (dairy, within the Kazinczy Synagogue complex, self-service). In addition, the Glatt Mátyás Market (Wesselényi utca) — a kosher shop with a small restaurant.

Mercedes V-Class from Ferenc Liszt Airport (BUD) to a hotel in central Budapest — 30-40 minutes, 22 kilometres. From a Pest hotel (fifth, sixth or seventh district) to Dohány — five to ten minutes by V-Class or a fifteen-minute walk. From a Buda hotel (first, second district) — fifteen minutes by V-Class across the Chain Bridge or Erzsébet híd. The full walking route (Dohány, Rumbach, Kazinczy, Glass House) is within ten minutes on foot.

V-Class parking: the underground car park at Hotel Kempinski Corvinus (Erzsébet tér 7, six minutes on foot to Dohány), Anker Center (Király 8-10, in the heart of Erzsébetváros), Hotel Continental Zara Hungária (Dohány 42-44 — opposite the synagogue).

Recommended day format: 9:30 departure from your hotel, 10:00-12:30 Dohány (synagogue plus Museum plus courtyard with memorials plus ghetto cemetery), 12:30-13:30 kosher lunch (Carmel or Hanna), 13:30-14:30 the Rumbach Synagogue, 14:30-15:00 Kazinczy (from outside or during a service), 15:00-15:30 the Glass House Wallenberg, 15:30-16:30 by V-Class to the Shoes on the Danube and Parliament, 16:30-18:00 the Holocaust Centre on Páva utca (ninth district), 18:00 return to your hotel. An optional second day — Buda (the medieval synagogue beneath Castle Hill, currently under restoration) and the Kozma utca Jewish Cemetery (the largest Jewish cemetery in Central Europe after Okopowa, with more than 300,000 graves).