In Hungary, Culture Opens a Door to Jewish Identity
By Hagay Hacohen
For many Hungarian Jews, questions of Jewish identity and belonging are shaped by a complicated relationship with the past and the realities of contemporary Jewish life. Those tensions came into focus throughout this summer’ s 28th Budapest Jewish Culture Festival, which attracted more than 15,000 visitors to 12 days of musical performances, film screenings and discussions about Jewish life and culture to venues across the Hungarian capital.
“ Many Hungarian Jews have been saddled with a heavy identity package of negative messages about their culture in the postcommunist, post-Holocaust country,” said Professor Gábor Balázs, rector of the Budapest University of Jewish Studies and
Professor Gabor Balazs. Courtesy of Helga Haiman.
a scholar of Jewish philosophy and contemporary Jewish identity.“ I was brought up Jewish, but in order to be a proud Jew, I had to seek out some answers for myself.”
Among the subjects explored
Orit Orbach. Courtesy of Senya Alman. at the festival was the legacy of Neolog Judaism, a movement that emerged in 19th-century Hungary and sought to reconcile Jewish tradition with modern Hungarian life through moderate religious reform.
For some Hungarian Jews, particularly younger generations, family heritage does not necessarily translate into active engagement with Jewish life. Gabor described a combination of negative cultural messages and depictions of Jews as outsiders, which can create a barrier for those who might otherwise wish to explore their heritage.
Against that backdrop, the festival offered another avenue for connecting with Jewish identity: culture itself.“ Good music might be the only way to bring Jews to synagogue,” Gabor
joked.
Clarinetist Orit Orbach, who trained in classical music, understands the power of such connections firsthand. Klezmer, the traditional instrumental music of Ashkenazi Jews, was once something she actively resisted.
“ My grandfather, Yaakov Zusman, was born in Kałuszyn, Poland, and often pleaded with me to play klezmer music, but I wanted nothing to do with it,” she said.“ To me, it was the music of immigrants, laden with too much emotion. Then I met composer Robert Starer, who asked me to perform his‘ Kli Zemer Concerto,’ and everything changed. That meeting fundamentally changed my life.”
Orbach began playing Klezmer music with the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, later discovering the work of musicians including Naftule Brandwine and Dave Tarras.
“ Nothing connects people as quickly as Jewish music,” she said.“ It reaches you emotionally and physically. Your whole body begins to move, and you carry that feeling home with you. Quite simply, you can’ t hear this music and remain indifferent.”
Additional expressions of Jewish culture at the festival ranged from performances by Hasidic-disco singer Yotam Mahler, aka Hillel, and the Avishai Cohen Trio to film screenings and discussions led by Hungarian critic András Réz at Goldmark Hall. The cultural venue is housed within the Dohány Street Synagogue, a 3,000-seat Moorish Revival landmark built in 1859 and one of the world’ s largest synagogues. Réz’ s selections included“ The Producers”( 1967),“ Fiddler on the Roof”( 1971) and“ Cabaret”( 1972).
Events took place at the recently renovated Rumbach Street Synagogue and the neo-Gothic Frankel Leó Synagogue. Other venues offered their own architectural distinctions, from the colored steel-and-glass roof of the Hegedűs Gyula Street Synagogue to the imposing scale of the Pécs Synagogue, the largest Jewish house of worship west of the Danube.
“ I believe Jewish culture has a lot to say to Western culture
The Charlotte Jewish News- October 2026- Page 21
A musical performance at Frankel Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary. Courtesy of the Budapest Jewish Culture Festival 2026
these days,” Balázs later said.
He is currently leading a team of scholars in translating the Chumash, the Five Books of Moses, and its commentaries into modern Hungarian. Balázs contrasted the project with the Hertz Chumash, a widely used edition translated and edited by former British Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz.
“ When we look at the Hertz Chumash from the early 1940s, we see that the Hungarian followed Hebrew linguistic patterns closely and the commentary was very apologetic,” he said.“ When completed, our new translation will present several dynamic perspectives, including nonapologetic ones.”
Questions of Jewish identity and belonging also intersect with contemporary debates over Israel.
“ Last Saturday, there was a demonstration in Budapest,” Balázs said.“ The organizers described it as pro-Palestinian, but in my view, it was pro-Hamas. Attendance was relatively low. At the same time, a pro-Israel demonstration drew a larger crowd.”
“ That said, we are seeing increasingly anti-Israel sentiment in academia, including among some Jewish scholars,” he continued.“ Regrettably, it can seem like an easy way to demonstrate you are a so-called good person.”
Yet the festival’ s tremendous success had a darker side. Lead organizer Andrea Deák said the volume of abusive comments and antisemitic attacks on social media proved“ extremely difficult to manage.”
For Orbach, music offers a formidable way to reach across such divisions.
“ It is important for me to bring Israel here,” she said.“ Our people want to connect and communicate. I hope my art can bypass politics and bring people together.”
Deák added that Hillel’ s concert was recorded for Hungarian television and will air nationally this winter as part of a special Chanukah program.
A festival guest receives help putting on a kippah during the Budapest Jewish Culture Festival.