Újpest Synagogue

The Újpest Synagogue is located in a relatively secluded place. You rarely get lost on Berczeviczy Street. The neolog synagogue, built in 1885, is still in operation today. True, I couldn’t get in, but I admired the tidy building from the outside. Stunning reliefs on the outer stone fence depict the suffering of the Jews in World War II. These stone carvings were made in 1947-48.

The Újpest Synagogue is a neologist Jewish church (synagogue) still operating today in Budapest IV. district in Újpest. Between 1885 and 1886, the neolog synagogue, which is still at an architectural disadvantage, was built on what is now Berzeviczy Street. Its designer was, according to contemporary press, a person named Greier, or Gränner (unknown first name), whose name is considered by some to be identical with the synagogue designer Jakob Gärtner, who was unknown at the time. The interior design follows the layout of the Dohány Street Synagogue. The building is a three-nave hall with a side gallery. There are stairwells at the ends of the boats. The ground floor row of Byzantine cast iron columns holds the gallery, supported by rarely placed similar columns - interwoven with cast iron "shoulder stones". The gallery above the crypt is the site of the organ where the organ of the Kecskemét Synagogue, damaged by the 1911 earthquake in Kecskemét, was erected. The structure and the entire building were damaged in 1944 when it was attacked, looted and set on fire. It was renovated shortly after World War II, by 1946. The organ stands today in the gallery opposite. The garden was then extended southward to the crossroads, and the wall overlooked it in the form of four reliefs, which tell the Jews of the pre-WWII period from cockroach genders, arrowheads and swastika soldiers to Soviet liberators and its history. The building was one of the first representative public buildings in Újpest. The high standard of its architectural design already in the 1880s indicated that the industrial periphery was going to become an independent cultural city, as it was in the early 20th century. The rapid development also resulted in a population explosion, which increased the number of Jews, so in 1909 the synagogue was enlarged according to the plans of Lipót Baumhorn.

Nice place, nice building

An exceptional building amidst the great monotony and ugliness.

In 1835, Count István Károlyi concluded a settlement contract with the first settler, tanner Izsák Lőwy, who founded a tannery and became the first judge of Újpest. He used the name Újpest for the first time. The first synagogue of the Jewish community was built in 1939, no drawings or photographs are known about it. The neolog synagogue, built in public romantic style under the direction of master architect Mátyás Böhm, was consecrated on September 23, 1886. We know from contemporary news that the inauguration of the church was “a holiday for the Jewish and Christian citizens of Újpest, as indicated by the fact that dr. In addition to the presidency of the large village, a large number of citizens and pastors from other denominations also took part in the ceremony, led by Chief Rabbi Sándor Rosenberg of Arad. ”