“Óbuda Synagogue”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

At the time the synagogue was built, the community of Óbuda was the largest Jewish community in Hungary.^[2]

According to the boastful author of an 1822 Austro-Hungarian guidebook, not only was the synagogue the "most magnificent" new building in Óbuda, few synagogues elsewhere could compare to its magnificence. It was "undoubtedly" one of the most magnificent synagogues in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, and one of the finest in all Europe, "Not even the Jewish temple of Temesvár can compete with it in pomp, not to mention the old synagogues of Prague. The only building that may outdo it in grandiosity is the building of the Jewish community of Amsterdam,"^[5] (a reference to the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam).

In 1831, following the death of Rabbi Moses Munz, the congregation left orthodoxy to follow reformist Neolog Judaism.^[1]

Beginning in 1848, the congregation expressed its support for Hungarian nationalism by having sermons delivered every other week in Hungarian.^[1]

The community shrank throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as members moved into the flourishing city of Pest.^[1] But the town, district III of Budapest was still 10% Jewish in 1926. In the 1970s, the diminished Jewish community sold the building for use as a television studio.^[1]

Used for a long time as a TV studio, it was reinaugurated as a synagogue on September 5, 2010, Yona Metzger, chief rabbi of Israel and Zsolt Semjén, Hungarian vice-prime minister, being present.^[6] The new rabbi is Slomo Köves, a Lubavitch.

Architecture

The synagogue was designed in French Empire style by architect Andreas Landesherr, who greatly enlarged and embellished the 1731 building, altering the appearance beyond recognition.^[7] The pediment and six Corinthian columns of the facade give the synagogue the aspect of a classical temple. The pediment was embellished with carved Classical ornament, and surmounted by the tablets of the Ten Commandments.^[8] On the side walls two tiers of round-arched windows alternate with classical pilasters.^[1]

Inside, the bimah boasted four impressive corner columns in the form of the then popular Egyptian Revival obelisks. Each obelisk stood atop a plinth, both heavily embellished with carved, classical ornament, capped by a sphere capped by an eagle. The Torah ark was flanked by classical columns, and topped by Tablets of the Law, surmounted by a crown and surrounded by a painted burst of clouds.^[8] It once held no fewer than 28 Torah scrolls belonging to the wealthy congregation.^[1] The women's gallery ran along the northern and western walls. Fourteen chandeliers hung from the ceiling, causing some congregants to complain about the extravagance of the synagogue's directors.^[9]

References

1. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹Carole Herselle Krinsky, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uv1c0gkDgLsC Synagogues of Europe; Architecture, History, Meaning], MIT Press, 1985; revised edition, MIT Press, 1986 ({{ISBN|0486290786}}); Dover reprint, 1996, pp. 155–156
2. ^¹{{cite book |title=Jewish Budapest Monuments, Rites and History, |author=Geza Komoroczy |author2=Viktoria Pusztai |author3=Andrea Strbik |author4=Kinga Frojimovics |publisher=Central European University Press |year=1999|isbn=963-9116-38-6 |page=41}}
3. ^Hew Strachan, [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zv8Zrrt6vqgC&dq=The+First+World+War:+To+Arms+2003&printsec=frontcover The First World War: To Arms, Hew Strachan], Oxford University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-19-926191-1}}, p. 1048.
4. ^Arthur James May, The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914–1918, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966, p. 336.
5. ^{{cite book |title=Jewish Budapest Monuments, Rites and History, |author=Geza Komoroczy |author2=Viktoria Pusztai |author3=Andrea Strbik |author4=Kinga Frojimovics |publisher=Central European University Press |year=1999|isbn=963-9116-38-6 |page=46}}
6. ^{{fr icon}}Jean Vidal; "Judaïsme et Israël à Budapest" in L'Arche, n° 629, October 2010
7. ^{{cite book |title=Jewish Budapest Monuments, Rites and History, |author=Geza Komoroczy |author2=Viktoria Pusztai |author3=Andrea Strbik |author4=Kinga Frojimovics |publisher=Central European University Press |year=1999|isbn=963-9116-38-6 |pages=44–45}}
8. ^¹Rachel Wischnitzer, Architecture of the European Synagogue, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1964, p. 180–181
9. ^Jewish Budapest; Monuments, Rites and History, by Geza Komoroczy, Viktoria Pusztai, Andrea Strbik, Kinga Frojimovics, Central European University Press (January 1999), p. 45–46.