Our first stop on this day was at the Dohany Street Synagogue complex and a bit of a walk through more of the old city in what was once the Jewish ghetto.
This synagogue is the largest in Europe and according to our guide even larger than the one in New York City (though there is a bit of an argument about that fact). It easily seats 3,000 people and is the center of Neolog Judaism. The congregation worships in the Ashkenazi rite.
This complex consists of the Great Synagogue, the Hero's Temple, a graveyard, a memorial garden, and a Jewish museum. We got to visit all of them and surprisingly had to go through security there as well. Pretty strict security truth be told as purses were manually gone through after going through x-ray screening.
The building is made with three spacious, and richly decorated aisles. There are balconies on each side, and surprisingly an organ (strange as there can be no work done on the Sabbath and playing an organ is considered work).
Just a few photos from the attached Jewish museum. It holds the Jewish religious and historical collection. This is a collection of relics of the Pest Hevrha Kaddishah, ritual objects of Shabbat and the High Holidays. There is a Holocaust room which was not open while we were there.
Next we got to visit the memorial garden and the graveyard. During the Holocaust the synagogue served as a shelter for many hundreds. Over 2,000 of those who died in the ghetto from starvation and cold during the winter of 1944-1945 are buried there. While it is not tradition for a Jewish cemetery to be so close to a synagogue and some bodies were transferred outside city limits those 2,000 were buried in the makeshift cemetery.
We then moved on to the Memorial Garden, but I think I will save that and the rest of our excursion until tomorrow. Pretty sure this picture heavy post has caused some of you to go to sleep.
Everybody have a wonderful evening.
God bless.
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