This is a photograph of Eva Redei taken during the Jewish Culture Festival in Budapest, Hungary in 2001. Eva is standing in front of the Dohany Street Synagogue selling books during the festival. Eva has been in the book business since 1965 and has had a stand at the festival since its inception in 1998. The photograph was taken by Eva’s husband, Gyula Foldes. The Jewish Culture Festival was established by the Jewish Tourism and Cultural Centre as a way of introducing the public to Jewish music, art, books, dance, and films and educating the general public about the important place of Jews in Hungary’s history. The main venue of the festival is the Dohany Street Synagogue.
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The Jewish Community of Hungary – Jews have lived in Hungary for approximately 600 years. Attitudes towards the Jewish community differed depending on the leaders; some were very welcoming, while others subjected the Jews to harsh taxation and blood libels and expelled them from certain areas of Hungary. By the mid-nineteenth century Jews had achieved full emancipation and the community prospered, with many belonging to the social, academic, and financial elites of the country. The Jewish community at the time consisted of Orthodox, traditionalist (Status Quo Ante), and Neolog communities. Prior to World War I, the Jews comprised around 5 percent of the total Hungarian population and 23 percent of the population of Budapest. By the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population numbered around 825,000. In 1944, towards the end of the war, the Nazis took over Hungary, and within a very short period most of the Jews were murdered. Around 200,000 Hungarian Jews survived the war. After the war, only 140,000 Jews remained in Hungary, while others immigrated to Israel and other western countries. In the following years, the Jews remaining in Hungary were challenged once again, this time by communist rule. However, after the fall of communism in Hungary in 1989, the community rebuilt itself and is today the largest in East-Central Europe with around 75,000–100,000 Jews. Most Hungarian Jews live in Budapest, where there are 20 active synagogues and a variety of Jewish religious and cultural institutions.
