Hungary

9.75 million

country population

~100,000

Jewish population

1915

JDC entry date

Harry Houdini and Theodor Herzl. Two people with two important commonalities: They’re Jewish — and they’re from Budapest.

This is a testament to the colorful and lasting legacy of Hungarian Jewish life. For more than 1,000 years, Budapest has been a dynamic center for Jewish life across Europe and beyond. By the late 19th century, Hungary boasted more than 900,000 Jews , with 125 synagogues in Budapest alone, and nearly a quarter of the city’s population identifying as Jewish. Before World War II, Jews comprised more than 25% of Hungary’s legal, medical, and intellectual professions.

The Holocaust devastated Hungarian Jews and threatened to destroy their long history. More than 600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, with over 70% killed at Auschwitz. What shreds of Jewish life that could be salvaged went underground when the communists seized power: Jewish life was repressed for more than 50 years.

Today, Jewish life has made a comeback. And for decades, JDC has been working alongside Budapest’s Jewish community to strengthen Jewish life, serve its most vulnerable members, and cultivate the next generation of Jewish leaders.

The future is limitless, and we’re proud to play a key role.

Aid to Vulnerable Jews

More than 30% of Jews in Hungary live in poverty, and the country still has thousands of Holocaust survivors who depend on shrinking social welfare services.Working with the Hungarian Jewish Social Support Foundation (HJSSF), JDC support helps makes a wide array of life-saving assistance available to Hungary’s most vulnerable Jews. JDC also launched the Jaffe Jewish Family Service (JFS), which provides mentoring, counseling, emergency assistance, and scholarships to at-risk youth in Budapest to more than 300 vulnerable children and families.

Developing Tomorrow’s Jewish Leaders

Through the inclusion of Hungarian participants in leadership training initiatives, such as the Buncher Community Leadership Program, Leatid, Yesod, and more, JDC equips local Jewish leaders and professionals with the tools to address their community’s needs. During these events and trainings, Hungarian participants have the chance to meet and collaborate with their peers from the rest of Jewish Europe and the world. JDC also supports the Tarbut Fellowship, a two-year fellowship that aims to inspire and empower young Jewish leaders from diverse professional backgrounds in Hungary and Poland.

JDC’s Mozaik Hub’s mission is to cultivate a network of Hungarian Jewish Community NGOs, increasing the capacity of new and existing initiatives and encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit in the Jewish community. Mozaik incubates what it calls “Hub Ups,” local non-profit startups that tackle social issues as diverse as Holocaust education, outreach to the at-risk Roma population, and healthy childhood development. Hub members have access to seminars, mentorship, and a network of young Jewish professionals working to address some of Hungary’s most pressing social challenges. As of August 2020, Mozaik has provided more than 2,400 hours of mentoring and consultancy and empowered more than 250 Jewish community professionals.

Cultivating a Jewish Future

At the center of Budapest’s Jewish life is the JDC-supported Bálint Ház Jewish Community Center (JCC) an exciting nexus of Jewish culture and education that attracts over 2,500 people per month. The JCC serves every sector of the Jewish community and offers Israeli dance and fitness classes, Jewish holiday celebrations, social activities for young adults, family programming, seminars on Jewish culture and history, a social club for Holocaust survivors, and more. It also organizes Judafest, a festival that brings Jewish art and culture to the streets of the Hungarian capital, as well as an annual Jewish and Israeli film festival.

Szarvas

Hungary is home to Szarvas — the JDC-Ronald S. Lauder Foundation International Jewish summer camp— and is a gateway to Jewish life for many young people across the world. Each summer, more than 1,500 youth from over 20 countries gather in rural Hungary, where they dance, sing, play sports, and immerse themselves in a fun and caring Jewish environment. Many campers become madrichim (counselors) and go on to strengthen Jewish life in their own home communities.