Jewish Heritage Tours of Hungary: Explore the History of Forgotten Villages and Synagogues

Jews were present in the lands that would eventually become Hungary as far back as the Roman Empire. Before the devastation of the Holocaust, the population of the country’s capital Budapest was 23% Jewish and one in every twenty Hungarians was a Jew. Budapest, set astride the mighty River Danube, is one of Europe’s great capitals and is famous for historic Jewish landmarks like the Dohany Street Synagogue. But some of the most interesting historic synagogues in Hungary are in rural villages like Sátoraljaújhely and Tiszazug, far from Budapest’s metropolitan bustle.

A tailored off-beat Jewish travel experience in Hungary offers a fascinating insight into a largely forgotten aspect of Hungarian Jewish heritage and an opportunity to explore rural Hungary, meet friendly and welcoming people, and encounter surviving local traditions. Luxury Jewish heritage tours of Hungary provide a unique glimpse into a lost world of Central European Jewry and a vanished way of life.

It’s certainly possible to plan independent Jewish heritage tours of Hungary and either hire a car or rely on public transport to get around and explore (with some help from Google Translate on your cell phone). If you want a genuinely luxurious tour, with the opportunity to really immerse yourself in Jewish history - and discover places that the average tourist never finds - it’s better to create a tailored itinerary with a professional Jewish travel company.

When you travel with expert local guides, the past really comes to life. Your tour company can arrange private access to restoration projects, archives and museum collections, as well as lectures and meetings with Hungarian Jews who can share oral histories of their family and community’s experiences. You can also sample some amazing Hungarian kosher food!

The small town of Sátoraljaújhely in the Zemplén Hills is closer to Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine than to Budapest. By the mid-18th century the town had a growing Jewish community and over the years they established schools, synagogues and, in 1905, a Jewish hospital. The old Jewish cemetery contains the tomb of Rebbe Moshe Teitelbaum and is an important pilgrimage site.

The rustic Zemplén Hills are a real delight to explore and a private guided tour can include visits to villages in the Kassa district, with a number of small Jewish cemeteries. Along the Győr–Óvári Road there’s a cluster of synagogues built in the Austro-Hungarian art-nouveau style.

The area around Sátoraljaújhely was once a small but thriving part of Hungarian Jewry and a regional commercial hub, but in 1944, 2,567 Jewish residents were deported from the town: most were murdered in the camps. Today, the town's synagogue hosts storytelling evenings with local historians and is a center for remembrance and memorial.

Makó is where Hungary blends into the Balkans and it definitely counts as an off-beat Jewish travel destination in Hungary. The quiet southern border town was once home to a confident Jewish community that built Hungary’s second largest synagogue in 1895. The Orthodox congregation created a place of worship whose striking facade and twin towers became a landmark of classical proportions and a statement of 19th century optimism and security.

The Makó synagogue fell into near terminal disrepair and decline during Hungary's Communist period. Fortunately it was rescued by an ambitious restoration project that began in 1999. The Hungarian government, local municipality, MAZSIHISZ (Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities), and private donors raised a sum in the region of HUF 80 million and completed the restoration in 2002. Today, the Makó synagogue is a surviving cultural legacy and an important cultural center.

Jews began to settle the Hungarian town of Karcag in 1848 and established a congregation a few years later. The first rabbi was Mark Hirsch who later rose to prominence as the chief rabbi of Prague, and then Hamburg. Construction of the Karcag synagogue began in 1898 and the design included beautiful stained glass windows decorated with Star of David motifs.

Approximately half of the town’s Jews were deported in 1944 and did not survive the Shoah. They are commemorated on the synagogue’s Martyrs’ Memorial Wall in the foyer and on a separate Martyrs’ Memorial Column erected in the cemetery. The modern synagogue serves a tiny community and usually only holds services on high holidays and memorial days, but your tour company may be able to arrange a guided tour and opportunity to worship.

The small town of Mád is close to the Slovakian border and the Mád synagogue sits on a hilltop with a splendid view of the Tokaj Hegyalja region’s vineyards. The shul was built in 1795, reputedly over an older medieval core structure and is one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Hungary. It is also one of the most beautiful, and is a superb example of Hungarian-Jewish baroque architecture. The style of the decorated interior was influenced by Polish-Lithuanian settlers who arrived in Mád in the 1720s.

The Mád synagogue was painstakingly restored in the early 2000s and is a wonderful place to sit and quietly reflect. All it takes is a little imagination to picture the synagogue as it was during previous centuries, when local Jews gathered to pray and the neighboring vineyards produced kosher wine.

Modern Hungary is a safe and welcoming place for US Jews to visit and there is a wealth of Jewish heritage sites to visit, as well as other cultural and historical sites and some amazing national parks and reserves. The summertime in Hungary is warm and sunny and late spring and early autumn are also pleasant seasons to travel.

A tailored itinerary allows you to explore the most interesting historic synagogues in Hungary, and to balance your trip with visits to museums and galleries, luxury shopping venues, or even a hike in the mountains or horse riding on the plains. If you’re visiting synagogues in border towns like Sátoraljaújhely or Makó it’s also possible to arrange a cross border excursion and explore a little more of Europe.

Gil Travel is one of the world’s most experienced Jewish travel companies and has a wide network of contacts in the Hungarian Jewish community. Talk to Gil Travel today about a luxury kosher travel itinerary that takes you out of big city Budapest and into the surprising Jewish history of picturesque rural Hungary.

Iris Hami is President of Gil Travel Group, the largest travel management firm sending people to Israel. She has over 40 years of experience in the travel industry, and uses that knowledge to craft unique Jewish journeys around the world. Her company has won multiple awards, including one from State of Israel Bonds for Extraordinary Achievements Promoting the State of Israel.