From Budapest to Bucharest: synagogues, cemeteries and the arts and artists of Jewish memory
On a recent Eastern European river cruise I had the opportunity to visit synagogues and cemeteries in both Budapest, Hungary, and Bucharest, Romania, with outstanding guides.
The synagogue in Budapest was part of a general tour offered to all passengers on the cruise. Budapest’s Dohány Street Synagogue is a place of remarkable grandeur. Built in a richly ornamented Moorish style and able to seat nearly 3,000 people, it is the largest synagogue in Europe and one of the great landmarks of Jewish history and architecture. Walking through its extraordinary soaring space, I was struck by its beauty and the way it blends worship, memory and culture.
The synagogue is not just a historic monument, but a living place of remembrance. The graves of Holocaust victims and the Memorial Tree stand as solemn witnesses to Budapest’s Jewish past. That heritage is also linked to artists and entertainers, including Hungarian Jewish painters and designers as well as internationally known figures such as Tony Curtis, Gene Simmons, George Cukor and Adolph Zukor.
We met wonderful people on the cruise from all over the world including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Canada, Tokyo and the U.S., mostly from the West Coast.
One of the couples we met are Barbara Winnik and Bob Siegel from the Washington, D.C., area. Barbara arranged a private tour of the cemetery, synagogue and museum in Bucharest, and we were able to join her. Barbara’s paternal grandmother, who later settled in Pittsburgh, came from Focsani. Barbara believed her last name was Issacson.
Between 290,000 and 360,000 Romanian Jews survived the Holocaust, one of the largest surviving Jewish populations in Europe. In the decades that followed, communist rule, lingering antisemitism and the establishment of Israel helped drive a mass emigration that reduced a once large community to a small remnant. There is still a small but active Jewish presence, including community institutions in Bucharest.
At the Ashkenazi Filantropia Jewish Cemetery in Bucharest, Barbara looked for the Issacson name in the cemetery record book. This cemetery is notable for its monumental gates and for the grave of Mihail Sebastian, a major Jewish writer and dramatist. Sebastian died young in 1945, and his resting place links the city’s Jewish heritage to Romania’s wider literary history. Bucharest’s Jewish burial grounds also preserve large, expressive gravestones and memorials, making them part of the city’s artistic landscape.
This sense that memory and visible, vibrant Jewish life is still alive in both Budapest and Bucharest made the visits unforgettable. Jewish history in Europe lives on not only in numbers, but in spirit, architecture and remembrance.
I recalled my own Eastern European roots. In my book “Pathfinding,” I quote my father Avshalom:
Your grandfather, as a youth, traveled all over Siberia. He was an entrepreneur and a salesman, . . .. when he faced the draft he decided to leave Russia and go to America…At that time there was an underground that operated throughout Europe, and it was able to spirit Jewish boys from town to town westward until they got to the German border. Once they got to Germany, they could board a ship that was bound for America.
So much of our Jewish heritage comes from these Eastern European regions. I am grateful and honored to have this opportunity, and my pride in being a Jew is strengthened by the history, resilience and contribution of our people.
Writing this column for over a decade has been a truly wonderful journey. I am so grateful for everything I have learned and for the incredible people I have met along the way. While I am stepping back from my regular monthly column, I will be contributing to Jewish Rhode Island in new ways moving forward. I look forward to staying in touch.
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