Budapest Synagogue Reopens After Decades as Warehouse, Signaling Jewish Revival Efforts
The Rákospalota synagogue in Budapest, which ceased operations during the Holocaust, has reopened nearly a century after its construction. For decades, the building served as a newspaper warehouse for Hungary's national library. Its rededication last week was attended by descendants of its founder, Rabbi Michael Dushinsky. This reopening is part of a broader initiative by EMIH, an association of Torah-observant Jewish communities in Hungary led by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Köves, to reclaim properties nationalized or taken from the Jewish community after the Holocaust. The synagogue, built in 1926, operated for only 18 years before its community was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. The project was financed by Igor Tulchinsky, a Jewish businessman from the United States, and involved reconstruction aided by artificial intelligence using an old photograph.
