The rendering of religious, cultural and historical heritage into public property, the development of a Jewish collection and exhibition hall

The speech of Béla Majdán

This is the english version of the speech, Béla Majdán held before the presentment of Tamás Verő rabbi, in the parish church of Balassagyarmat, on 24th November, 2010.

Dear Attendance!

 

Please allow me to open this unique night with the welcoming phrases of the so called 4 traditional churces of Hungary:

Laudetur Iesus Christus - Praise Jesus Christ! Blessing and Peace! Our God is a strong fortress! Sálom Aléchem - May peace be with you!

Why did I call this evening unique? Because as far as I know in this very ancient building, which is standing since 1746, in this building, which is called the Trinity Catholic Parish Church there wasn't a time, when a rabbi was speaking to an audience. After almost the quarter of a millenium, this is the first such "holy occasion".

But this unique religious and historical moment is not a stranger in our little town, and it is definiately not mannered, considering the spirit of this roman catholic parish church. And I would like to remind you to a few facts, to prove this.

First of all let me remind you to the architect of this building, Pál Balassa, the same person, who also happened to have a lordship in the city, and who decided, in cooperation with the Zichys, that he will repopulate our town with merchants and vendors from far away lands, to strengthen its economy. This act from lord Balassa became the most important moment in the 18th century history of Balassagyarmat, and it characterized our city until the second World War. The town welcomed a lot of settlers, among them slovakian and german industrial workers and macedonian (later serbian) and jewish merchants.  and the jewish community became the most prosperous of them all. After only a century their numbers increased greatly, and in the 1850's, 39,32% of the citizens of Balassagyarmat were jewish. Please think about it for a moment: in the time of Imre Madách, every 4 citizen of Balassagyarmat out of 10 were jewish. It is not a coincidence, that our city had the second largest orthodox synagogue in whole Eastern-Europe. It was able to welcome 4000 believers. The nazis blew it up during the second World War, and now it is a marketplace.

 

This process was started by the lord, Pál Balassa, who also happened to be roman catholic. This lord, who built a church, had a connection with the pope and who brought the remains of Saint Felicián, catholic martyr to our town (which remains can be seen at the  side-altar), also supported the foreign settlers, people from other countries, with different religion, welcomed them with open arms, gave them shelter, and also lent part of the Balassa tavern (which is a home depot-like shop nowadays) to jewish merchants in a very  reduced rate, because he was an open-minded person.

And I also would like to mention, that if you watch it closely, you can see in this very parish church, above the Trinity altar, you can see a symbol, and in the middle of it, you can read hebrew inscription.

But I don't want to continue with counting details about the jewish heritage of our town, if somebody is interested, they can always come and see it at our little museum on Hunyadi Street or at the national art relic cemetery of ours, which is the first such thing in Hungary.

 

I hope, you can now understand when I say, Balassagyarmat and the roman catholic parish church of Balassagyarmat is not a stranger when it comes to the jewish culture, and it is a good place to try to reconnect with that jewish heritage I mentioned above.

Please allow me, to ask Mr. Tamás Verő, the rabbi of Budapest to begin his presentment after my little intro.

Tonight Mr. Tamás Verő rabbi will demonstrate us the religious life of the People of the Old Testament, and he will also show us their identity, giving us insight, showing us how a jewish man thinks, how he/she practice his/her religion, and he will show us the spirit, the holidays and the casual life of a religious jew.

Before I ask him to begin, I would like to tell you, that we agreed with him, and he will also show you certain religious items. I hope you won't find the presentment we are about to hear too dull or theological, but rather humanized and informal.

 

Translated by: Majdán Béla Jr.