On Thursday, March, 19. 4.30 p.m. civil people were invited with free admission to the Odeon-Lloyd Cinema -Budapest, where the premiere documentary film was shown before officially appearing this year in the month of April on the local Spectrum TV channel.
The history of the Jews in Hungary is dating back centuries. Time never washed away the tradition. The war only temporarily trampled upon by the culture where secrecy was forced, but it always was hiding behind the walls on the streets of Budapest. History has always found the right way. The word synagogue means „Assembly House”. Hungary, however, unfortunately rewrote the word within its history. Before the World War II there were 350 active Synagogues. After the war, the majority of Jews in the rural settlements disappeared. The empty synagogues remained, but no longer served the Jewish place as worship. Many of them ruined, remained empty, hit over the years. Then at some places the local population turned them into useful buildings.
Now-a-days, a total countrywide is forty Synagogues. At these places most of the local residents have no idea about the buildings original function, upon stories spread word-by-word from generation to generation immortalize their memories.
Dávid Fülöp introduced the first-part of his four-part documentary. He said his intention of producing the series of documentary was to introduce to the young adults to the built heritage of the Jews in Hungary. He also talked about the background of his idea. It all started one day arriving to the Honvéd Sport Club for his fencing training. As he entered the training center he discovered on the inner walls some Jewish monuments depicting the building details. Then together with his friend Eszter Soós decided to look, search for similar buildings in Budapest and in Hungary where previously these were functioning as Synagogues. They both discovered beside in Budapest more than a dozen in various sizes and architecturally unique buildings throughout the country to-day paying a complete and very different in function. Also was said the documentary will be subtitled in English language and after the premiere shooting on TV will be available on other forms of screening.
The 42-minute documentary series on the history of Hungarian synagogues had been funded and supported by the premiership.
Here is a little teaser … www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-v49NhgNM
Update by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 