The Synagogue

The synagogue of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary - now University of Jewish Studies - has been a functioning synagogue since 1877 without interruption. The main function of the synagogue is to serve as the location of religious services. It is the House of Prayer where we hold services for Sabbath, the High Holidays, on weekdays and Pilgrim Festivals. Our synagogue, with its seating capability of 120 and its organ is a church of the Jewish religion, it gives its faithful a place where they can seek the Almighty through their prayers. Our synagogue is also the site of Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. On Sundays when the synagogue calendar makes it possible we also hold weddings here.

This small church has another function which is quite important from the viewpoint of our institution, in service of professional methodological training. The synagogue of the Rabbinical Seminary, like the other organizational units of the institution, has a role in the training specializations as a teaching synagogue and has had this role throughout the 122 existence of the Seminary.

We involve the synagogue in our educational technology in several ways. Our rabbi candidates hold sermons periodically in a cyclically recurring order on Friday nights. They have given their sermons before this occasion twice at various “forums”. From a pedagogical and rhetorical standpoint their sermon is an “end product” that rests on theoretical and homiletical work. Our students prepare for their sermons in homiletics, rhetoric and speech technique classes. They must submit the sermon in a written form to the speech technique professor of the institute for approval. He evaluates the sermons for rhetorical content while the rector of the institute evaluates them for theological content. They both correct the texts, then the students give the sermons on two occasions. At these occasions other professors of the institute are present as well, evaluating the students’ performance, and only after this process has been completed can the sermons be given before the “public” of the synagogue.

After the sermon has been given before the congregation at the Friday night service, it is analyzed and evaluated in the following week’s rhetoric and homiletics classes, with the participation of the professors and the other students.

The other educational function of the synagogue is fulfilled as students in the specializations in liturgical history and cantor training learn the rituals and order of the services given on Friday evening, Saturday morning, at high holidays and, last but not least, on weekdays. We first recreate for them the atmosphere reminescent of the synagogue on weekdays outside the service. At the end of the academic year the synagogue is the site of the liturgical concerts of the specialization in cantor training.

We use technical equipment during our work, that is, we make video recordings of the “practice-service”: the prayers said and the speeches given, all details of these are then analyzed by the professors in the classes following the “practice-service”. Our students thereby learn about their future sphere of occupation, learning the behaviour and actions appropriate to religious services.

The third function of our synagogue is a unique one. An organic and important part of our institution is the Goldmark Choir of the Jewish Theological Seminary - University of Jewish Studies. The choir, creating as well as preserving tradition, performs primarily Hungarian and Eastern European Jewish melodies but is also familiar with the music of Israel.

The first in any concert series given by the choir is the opening night at our synagogue, given jointly with a religious service. The small temple is transformed into a veritable concert hall on these occasions where the rabbinical students, teacher and cantor candidates help introduce the musical works collected and reworked for performance by the professors of our institute’s department of liturgical history.

Significant events also take place in our institute’s assembly hall, located directly above the synagogue, on the second flour of our building. The hall has enjoyed large popularity even in the past and now, as the the Seminary’s Sándor Scheiber Auditorium it serves as the site of the kiddushes following Friday evening’s and Saturday morning’s religious services in welcome of the holiday. At these events primarily students in the specialization in Judaism and not rabbinical students give modern Scripture interpretations, displaying their expertise in reading the Holy Scriptures. These are excellent occasions for both students and other participants to become familiar with certain musical elements which, though not a part of religious services or home rituals are nevertheless important in Jewish communal life.

The prayer books used at religious services also represent a part of our institution’s work profile insofar as they have been translated by our professors and upper-class students. As Jewish prayer books have only in the rarest of cases been published after the second world war, we have been the sole the publishers of prayer books representing the liturgy of the Hungarian neologian community. This publishing activity was begun only a few years ago. We have therewith not only satisfied the demands of our congregation but have also provided our students with the necessary auxiliary material.

The synagogue of the University as a location where religious services are held is important also as a center of protocol because highly qualified religious and secular persons – Jewish or the representatives of other denominations – coming to Hungary from Israel, the United States or elsewhere visit first and foremost two sites as an integral part of the program introducing them to the life of the Hungarian Jewish community: first, the synagogue of the Jewish Theological Seminary - University of Jewish Studies for the Friday night service, then Budapest’s central synagogue in Dohány utca for the Saturday morning service.