Synagogue

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN HÉVÍZ BEFORE WORLD WAR I

Hévízfürdő, which became world-famous for its medicinal lake, was referred to as Keszthelyi-Hévíz before the First World War. On the western side of the lake, the bathing complex was established in the 1860s, which belonged to the Festetics estate. In the 1920s, the spa community was established in its neighborhood, which, together with the spa complex, belonged administratively to the Hévízszentandras district registry established in 1907. The Jews of Hévízfürdő were closely linked to the Jews of neighboring Keszthely.

View of Hévízfürdő

Towards the end of the 18th century, the first Jewish residents settled in Hévízszentandrás (then still Szentandrás). The village's first Jew - a certain Joachim - appeared in the 1795 tax census, and the 1798 register mentioned a person named "Isák Jósef". The Jews of Szentandrás belonged to the mother faith community of Keszthely from a religious and administrative (registry) point of view.

In the second half of the 19th century, the number of Jews was limited to only a few families and only 2-3 percent of the population. In 1890, 5 out of 240 inhabitants (2.1%), in 1910 8 out of 303 inhabitants (2.6%) were of Israelite religion. Thanks to the booming spa life after the First World War, most Jews lived in Hévízszentandrás in 1930 (23 people, 3.4 percent of the population), while in Egregy, which is further from the spa, there were no Jews since the 1920s.

Among those vacationing and seeking healing at Hévízfürdő, however, the proportion of Jews became more and more significant, accounting for a quarter of the visitors (20-30 thousand people) in the summer season. The Israeli guests played an important role in the urbanization of the bathing place, in spreading the bourgeois way of life and cultural customs, while Hévízfürdő also promoted the social acceptance and practical validation of their civil equality.

Several of the hotels, shops and restaurants that spread in the spa area were owned by Jewish investors. The Jewish guests' religious needs were met by the Israelite house of prayer, inaugurated in 1910, which was built on the left bank of the drainage channel of the spa, near Ignác Lusztig's restaurant named "Jeruzsálem". During the high season - from the end of May to the end of August - dr. Sándor Büchler, The chief rabbi of Keszthely,  often taught from the Bible and the Talmud. The collection of the musical services and cultural performances was used for the medical treatment of poor believers. Mandel's restaurant provided kosher meals for spa guests of the Israeli religion.

The Israelite House of Prayer stood next to the left bank of the drainage channel

The Jerúzsálem restaurant (later Alsó restaurant)

The Reischl family, who leased the spa from the Festetics for 35 years (1905–1940), played a major role in the spa's prosperity - jr. Vencel Reischl, then Imre and Richárd's sons - as well as the Jewish spa doctors who created the foundations of Hévíz spa medicine, dr. Vilmos Schulhof and dr. Ödön Schulhof, and the Christian dr. Károly Moll.

Dr. Vilmos Schulhof, spa doctor, rheumatologist and balneologist, worked in Hévíz from 1906. Here, in 1911, he established the second Zander medical institution in Europe, where therapeutic gymnastics using machines was used as a supplement to the spa treatment. Before the First World War, spa doctor Schulhof carried out extensive scientific work to promote the spa in both domestic and foreign interest. His articles were published in numerous domestic and German trade magazines, he was one of the editors of the spa guides published annually by the National Balneology Association, in which he wrote the chapter on the Hévíz Spa. Dr. Vilmos Schulhof laid the foundations of Hévízfürdő with his research, scientific and educational work, and made the spa known abroad.

The Zander Institute and its medico mechanical machine line

THE HISTORY OF HÉVÍZ JEWISHNESS BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS

By the end of the 1920s, the house of worship proved to be small, and it was far from the spa community that was developing at the "American pace". The Israelite church was inaugurated in an ornate ceremony on July 2, 1933, the ceremony was presided over by dr. Sándor Büchler, the chief rabbi of Keszthely, and it was attended by representatives of the secular authorities, many Neolog and Orthodox rabbis, as well as the spa guests. The Festetics principality contributed with real estate, the Reischl Fürdőbérlő Társaság and the Hévízszentandrás spa community, as well as numerous private individuals contributed to the construction through monetary donations. Established as a branch of the Keszthely parish and later becoming independent Dr. Sándor Büchler Chief Rabbi was elected as President of the Hévíz parish, and Dr. Adolf Kertész, a lawyer from Budapest, the organizer of the church construction and an enthusiastic supporter of the spa was elected as the secular president. Among the members of the presidium was Dr. Ödön Schulhof spa doctor, local resident Miksa Singer, and several regular visitors to the spa.

The exterior and interior of the synagogue in Hévíz followed Orthodox traditions with the aim of enabling even the more religious of the spa guests to practice their faith.

The synagogue was built in 1933 near the lake

According to reports from the time, the synagogue was crowded during the Friday evening and Saturday services with Israeli guests seeking spiritual nourishment in addition to healing, whose donations helped maintain the religious life.

Among the vacationers, a significant proportion of people were of the Israelite religion.

In one of the buildings of the spa walkway, the Kurszalon (Medicine Room), concerts were often organized for the benefit of the Israelite church fund, in which spa guests participated regardless of denominational difference.

The church was inaugurated by dr. Sándor Büchler Chief Rabbi

Dr. Ödön Schulhof (Vilmos' half-brother) worked in Berlin after graduating from the medical university in Budapest, from where he returned home in 1923, and practiced at his brother Vilmos's Zander Institute in Hévíz during the spa season. His work was already considered pioneering in the decades between the two world wars. In the 1920s, he was the first to use novocaine infiltration to relieve rheumatic and joint pain. As the first X-ray doctor in Hévíz, he also produced outstanding joint and bone X-rays on a national scale. The so-called Bársony-Schulhof "view" X-ray procedure has been used all over the world.

Dr. Ödön Schulhof (on the left) and Dr. Vilmos Schulhof (on the right) spa doctors

During the census of the Jewish residents of the Hévízszentandrás district registry on April 28, 1944, fifteen Jewish residents were recorded in 4 households in Hévízszentandrás and the spa area. The same number were listed in the list of names made in the Keszthely ghetto on May 26, but only thirteen were listed on the list of those transported to Zalaegerszeg due to labor service calls. Among the Jews of Hévíz, the members of the Freller, Frisch, Simon and Singer families, as well as dr. Vilmos Schulhof and László Ungár were destroyed in Auschwitz, several others (men in labor service) died elsewhere.

STARTING AGAIN AFTER THE WAR, DEMOLITION OF THE CHURCH

In the intact synagogue, Jewish spa guests visiting Hévíz continued to practice their religion after the war. However, after the death of Dr. Adolf Kertész (1959), the religious life ceased at the end of the 1960s, and the orphaned, decaying building was demolished in April 1977, in connection with the reconstruction of the buildings of the lake bath between 1977-1982.

The lake cabinet cover was donated by Imre Simon in 1955

The synagogue was demolished in 1977

On July 2, 2000, the Holocaust memorial ("Hévíz Wailing Wall") was inaugurated on the site of the synagogue in the presence of the Israeli Ambassador Judith Shorer Várnai, which was built with the sacrifices of the city.

Holocaust memorial erected on the site of the synagogue

Sources used: SZARKA Lajos, Páratlan testvérpár. A Schulhof - testvérek szerepe Hévíz „világfürdővé” válásában. Hévíz: Hévíz Város Önkormányzata és Szent András Állami Reumatológiai és Rehabilitációs Kórház, 1999. első kiadás és 2002. második kiadás DR. SZARKA Lajos, A hévízi zsidóság története. Hévíz: Hévíz Város Önkormányzata, 2000.

INFORMATION FOR INTERIOR SPACE OBJECT ELEMENTS

The synagogue - or in Hebrew bet hákneszet (house of assembly) - is the central place of Jewish religious and ritual life, where Jewish people gather. The orthodox synagogue in Hévíz was inaugurated on July 2, 1933.

The main entrance and two side entrances opened from the western side of the synagogue. The women entered through the side entrance on the left, from which a staircase led up to the upstairs gallery. Women were separated from men.

The main entrance and the door on the right were used by men, the latter led to the room in the vestibule where the basin of water for ritual hand washing stood, and the faithful could enter the main entrance vestibule after this had been done.

At the inauguration of the synagogue, several commemorative plaques made of precious stones (granite, marble) were placed in the vestibule, two listed the names of those who made large donations to the construction, one indicated the time and main data of the construction (it was built between 1930-33 on the plot donated by the hg. Festetics Tasziló , at the initiative of Dr. Adolf Kertész and his wife, based on the plans of the chief technical advisor Artúr Boros, under the leadership of master builder András Varga and under the supervision of Béla Berényi). On the fourth board were the names of those who supported the Israeli patients who came to Hévíz with bed donations. The fifth - smaller - white marble tablet was erected in honor of Adolf Kertész the synagogue founder, who died in 1959.

The wooden-framed plaque of the Israelite Prayer Society of Hévízfürdő was hung in the lobby. This showed the order of services, which started on Friday at 7 pm and on Saturday at 9 am during the bathing season.

Among those listed, two large memorial plaques (donors and bed donors) and dr. Adolf Kertész's plaque was placed on the Holocaust memorial inaugurated on July 2, 2000.

In the center of the interior stood the bima, or Torah reading platform, from which the designated section of the Torah was read aloud facing east (towards Jerusalem) on Sabbaths and holidays in Orthodox synagogues. The bima was typically decorated with a menorah (seven-branched candelabrum).

In the central space - in front of and behind the bima - benches were placed, where the believers took their seats and followed the prayer.

On the east side – facing Jerusalem, the former Sanctuary – was the Torah cabinet (or frig cabinet), where the Torah scroll (or scrolls) containing the 5 books of Moses were stored. The Torah cabinet was covered with a decorative Torah cabinet cover made of velvet and silk, with embroidered Hebrew inscriptions and Jewish symbols (Star of David, menorah, olive branch), which was pulled away when the Torah was taken out. Imre Simon and his wife donated a new Torah cabinet cover to the Hévíz church in 1955, the inscription on which referred to the martyrs who were destroyed in the Holocaust ("in memory of our fathers").

Near the Torah booth, the rabbi (from the right) and the cantor, or prayer leader (from the left), had a decorative seat.

The seat of the leaders of the religious community was placed near the eastern side.

On the high-backed bench preserved from the Hévíz church, The names of President dr.Adolf Kertész, Artúr Boros and József Brüll were marked with enameled plaques.

The church was lit by 3 large windows from the north and south, and the narrower windows on the west (entrance) side were the galleries designated for women. The synagogue's small decorative glass window - depicting a blue Star of David enclosed in a white circle - has survived.

The interior lighting of the synagogue was provided by the chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the lamps placed on the walls, with bronze and wrought iron wall brackets. A wall arm from the latter also remained.

In front of the frigate, there was a perpetual candlestick (nér tómid) hanging from the ceiling, which reminds of the eternally burning fire on the altar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. A separate association (Nér Tómid, or Örökmécs Egyesület) usually took care of keeping the candle flame alive.

HÉVÍZ SYNAGOGUE 3D RECONSTRUCTION

Hévízi zsinagóga 3D rekonstrukció

Text written by: Dr. Szarka Lajos (PhD) historian.

Sources Used:

SZARKA Lajos, Páratlan testvérpár. A Schulhof - testvérek szerepe Hévíz „világfürdővé” válásában. Hévíz: Hévíz Város Önkormányzata és Szent András Állami Reumatológiai és Rehabilitációs Kórház, 1999. első kiadás és 2002. második kiadás DR. SZARKA Lajos, A hévízi zsidóság története. Hévíz: Hévíz Város Önkormányzata, 2000.

Kép: Fortepan/Album051