Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Michael Malkieli (Shas) wrapped up his remarkable visit to the Jewish community in Hungary today with a special and moving tour of the ‘Machane Chabad Refugee Camp’ for Ukrainian Jews. The camp is located on the picturesque shores of Lake Balaton in central Hungary.
Throughout the four-day visit, organized and accompanied by Rabbi Shlomo Koves – Chabad emissary and chairman of “EMIH – Association of Hungarian Jewish Commmunities” in Hungary, and Rabbi Shmuel Oirechman – CEO of the Orthodox community, the Minister’s schedule was packed with activities.
On his first day in the country, after morning prayers at the grand Zsilip synagogue led by Rabbi Shmuel Glitzenstein, he visited the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya of Kerestir in the town of Bodrogkeresztúr (Kerestir) in the northeast of the country. Later, he traveled to Miskolc, the regional capital and third-largest city in Hungary, touring the Jewish community there with Chabad emissary and Miskolc’s rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Brown.
The following day, the Minister visited the Orthodox community center in Budapest, where he closely observed the synagogue renovation work – the first such undertaking since its construction over a century ago. The Minister also met with Hungarian government representative Lánszky Regő, who came especially for the occasion. In an impressive ceremony, they laid the cornerstone for the Jewish Life Museum, set to be established next year in the heart of the city’s Jewish Quarter.
The Hungarian Minister, moved by the event, said during the ceremony, “We are delighted to begin construction of the Orthodox Jewish Museum, which will showcase the past and present of the community with its rich history in Hungary. I am honored to be part of the cornerstone laying with Michael Malkieli, Israel’s Minister of Religious Services, alongside the president of the Hungarian Orthodox community, Gábor Keszler, and community director Rabbi Shmuel Oirechman. I pray that the Jewish community in Hungary will be blessed with ‘May there be peace in your wall, tranquility in your palaces.’”
A special visit also took place at the city’s largest Jewish school and at the “Keren Or” Chabad House – the center of the Israeli community in Hungary and the largest Chabad House for Israelis in Europe, led by emissary Rabbi Shmuel Raskin, rabbi of the Israeli community.
The meeting began with a moving prayer for the immediate return of the hostages, for the success and recovery of the heroic soldiers, and for the well-being of all of Israel. The Minister was impressed by the activities among the hundreds of community families and the warm home for hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the country and the world, as well as the special activities with students and young people led by emissary Rabbi Shalom Eisenberger.
Community dignitaries attended the meeting, and after the rabbi presented the Minister with his new book “Keren Or l’Neshama,” the Minister blessed the holy work of all the Rebbe’s emissaries around the world. Later, a special prayer was held at “the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial” in memory of Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
The highlight of the visit occurred when the Minister arrived at the refugee camp for Hungarian Jews, operated by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine (FJCU), led by Rabbi Meir Stambler in cooperation with the EMIH – Association of Hungarian Jewish Commmunities led by Rabbi Shlomo Koves.
At the camp, the Minister gained firsthand insight into the difficult daily lives of Ukrainian Jews who have yet to find shelter even after more than two and a half years of bloody war.
Rabbi Koves, who accompanied the Minister, told him that over 12,000 Jews have passed through the camp on their way to Israel or other European countries, and about 150 refugees reside there permanently. “The war in Ukraine has been forgotten, but it continues all the time, and every month we receive a new ‘wave’ of refugees from cities and towns that the Russians are approaching.”
The Minister, who arrived just in time for lunch in the camp’s main dining hall, expressed his admiration for the significant investment in the refugees and delivered a short, moving speech wishing them a swift ascent to Israel with the Moshiach.
A Federation representative told the Minister about the place and its importance for Ukrainian Jews, thanked him for the visit, and expressed gratitude on behalf of Rabbi Stambler, who is in Ukraine and couldn’t personally attend due to the security situation. It’s worth noting that the camp serves as a warm haven for all Ukrainian Jews, Chabad emissaries, and their communities, with many visiting for a respite from their daily struggles. Immediately after Tisha B’Av, dozens of families of Chabad emissaries and their community members from Ukraine will arrive to rest and renew their strength, despite the challenges on the roads.
Later, a special event was held when a 41-year-old Jewish man living in nearby Siófok, who had grown up as a Christian all his life, celebrated his belated Bar Mitzvah and became an observant Jew. The story of this man, named David, is interesting: A Jew at the refugee camp discovered him by chance at a gas station, and when David mentioned that he was Christian but his mother and grandmother were Jewish, that Jew connected him with the Chabad House in Budapest.
After investigating his Jewish lineage, it was confirmed that he is indeed a kosher Jew. Recently, his connection to the Jewish community has grown stronger, and just these days he announced that he is ready to live as a Jew and accept the yoke of Torah and mitzvot. Minister Malkieli and Rabbi Kovesh presented him with a gift of an elegant set of tefillin, a Hungarian prayer book published by EMIH, and a special page explaining how to put on tefillin, after which the participants burst into a celebratory dance.
Afterward, the Minister visited two special summer camps for refugee children from Ukraine currently taking place there, led by emissary Rabbi Elisha Pavlotsky. These camps, with hundreds of children participating, are held for children who came especially from Ukraine, as well as for Ukrainian children whose families have integrated into various communities across Europe.
The children thanked Rabbi Koves and the Minister for the opportunity to vacation there and shared how important the camp is to them. “We’re finally meeting friends from Ukraine here that we haven’t seen since the war broke out. This place allows us to live like one big community and speak our language with childhood friends that the war tore us apart from,” they said, each in their own language.
As part of this, the Minister also participated in a “first time laying tefillin” ceremony for a boy attending the camp. The Minister then gave a speech to the children about the importance of observing Torah and mitzvot in any place and situation, expressing confidence that they will grow up to be a source of pride and spread Judaism wherever they go.
The tour ended after several fascinating hours, but not before the Minister visited several apartment complexes built on site to accommodate the masses of refugees. “The Minister saw up close the expansive camp we prepared for the temporary stay of 800 refugees, our brothers and sisters who fled the cannons of war and can now rest and recover in a Jewish environment, in the largest Jewish ‘shtetl’ of its kind in Europe that we established here,” said Rabbi Kovesh.
At the end of the visit, the Minister for Religious Affairs said, “In my role, I visit many countries and address the religious needs of Jewish communities, but I have not seen such magnificent Jewish life anywhere else. I am sure people will adopt the ‘Hungarian model’ of Rabbis Kovesh and Oirechman everywhere, building thriving, secure, and flourishing Judaism. I also thank the ‘Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine’ for its extensive activities on behalf of the country’s Jews, as reflected in the refugee camp. On behalf of myself, the people of Israel, and the Israeli government, I express our deep gratitude to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government, who work tirelessly for the Jewish community in the country, to preserve its history and develop its present and future.”
