GETTING THERE
the Dohány Street Synagogue, one of the grandest Jewish houses of prayer ever built in the Diaspora and the largest still functioning in Europe. Constructed in a Moorish Revival style in the 1850s, the size, scale and design of this 3,000-seat synagogue with its ornate frescoes is a marvel.
In its buildings and courtyards, you’ll find the Jewish Museum (itself on the site of Herzl’s birthplace) and Heroes Temple, as well as the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park and Jewish Cemetery. Other synagogues remain in the streets of the Jewish Quarter, Erzsébetváros, now better known to younger visitors for its nightlife including ‘ruin bars’ in the area’s old abandoned buildings.
Another lies in neighbouring Jozsefvaros, now housing the Holocaust Memorial Centre within its restored walls. Perhaps the best-known memorial, and one of the most moving, is the Shoes on the Danube along the banks of the river in Pest, honouring those killed by Arrow Cross fascists, who were shot at the edge of the water.
Today the majority of Hungary’s Jews still live in the capital, and while the city’s kosher dining options may be limited, the choices that do exist allow you to enjoy authentically Hungarian dining with a kosher stamp — not merely transplanted Israeli and international cuisine with certification. You can find familiar food too, useful for a quick lunch or light dinner, but
RETURN flights with Wizz Air cost from around £65 from Luton Airport. wizzair.com
For details on hotels and tours available in the city, including various Jewish heritage tours, visit budapestinfo.hu in Budapest you get the local experience, including two supervised meat restaurants.
Walking in to Hanna’s on Dob Street is always exciting, so different from the restaurants I normally encounter. Something about it reminds me of Bloom’s back in the day. The food is hearty and full of flavour, and the restaurant does a good goulash, the signature of Hungarian cooking, as well as other local favourites like chicken prakash, a dish coloured a deep brickred from its main flavouring, paprika plus items from other cuisines, including a popular hummus.
The other kosher restaurant, Carmel on Kazinczy Street, also serves local cuisine, including some interestingly-flavoured soups, as well as international offerings like schnitzels. Both of these establishments allow people to book in for Shabbat meals, which are paid for in advance.
Even the breads you find are a way to explore local food. Kosher Market , next door to Hanna’s, may have plenty of Israeli and American imports on the grocery shelves, but don’t miss the onion-stuffed bread among the local options in the bakery section. For more familiar kosher fare, Tel Aviv Pizza, also on Kazinczy, has salads, pasta, and shakshuka in addition to pizza.
As you eat, it’s easy to consider how Jewish history is woven with the city. At Hanna’s, it’s not merely the flavours you’ll discover; the restaurant itself is in one of the courtyard buildings of the Kazinczy Street Synagogue, the stronghold of Budapest Orthodoxy from its construction in 1912 until the Holocaust, and again today.
And eating there, voting with your knife and fork to keep kosher cuisine going in this important location — in a country where the rise of the far right worries Jews — you become, in a tiny way, part of history yourself.