Hungary – Chabad Opens Center In Debrecen; Meets With Hungarian President

Hungary – Chabad-Lubavitch of Hungary announced the installment of new representatives to serve the Jewish community of Debrecen.

Rabbi Shmuel Feigin and his wife will join the team of Chabad emissaries to Hungary, Rabbis Boruch Oberlander, Shlomo Köves and Shmuel Raskin. The Feigins will be serving the city’s Jewish population of about 4,000, as well as some 1000 Israeli students attending who attend medical school in Debrecen.

Debrecen, home to a large Jewish population before the Holocaust, was known for several leading Hungarian rabbis, among them Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl, an activist credited with achieving a two year freeze that prevented the deportation of Slovakian Jewry to Nazi death camps.

Since the fall of Communism, Debrecen has grown in stature and population. Today it boasts Hungary’s second largest population, exceeded only by Budapest.

The new emissaries were announced at a special banquet held in the newly renovated Óbuda synagogue. The synagogue, the oldest still standing in Hungary, was renovated with a grant from the Rohr Family Foundation.

Addressing the banquet, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky of Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, who helped spearhead the renovation of the synagogue, spoke of the rekindling of Jewish life in Hungary.

Rabbi Kotlarsky described the reemergence of Jewish life in Hungary as “nothing short of a spiritual renaissance. Who would have thought that from the ashes of the Holocaust and the suppressive Communist regime, Jews would once more gather in the Óbuda synagogue.”

Rabbi Kotlarsky and a delegation from the Jewish community met with Hungarian President Pál Schmitt. In their hour-long meeting, they discussed the need for increased education to help combat growing anti-Semitism in Hungary.

Before leaving, President Schmitt expressed warm feelings for the activities of Chabad in Hungary.

“Here,” he said, “they always have an open door.”