Stunning New Mikvah Inaugurated in Budapest

A long cherished dream was fulfilled for the Jewish community in Budapest, Hungary last week, as a stunning new mikveh was inaugurated in the city, a few hundred meters from the Hungarian Parliament building.

The Mikveh is in the Zsilip community center, established about a year and a half ago by EMIH – the Chabad-affiliated Hungarian Jewish Association.

The opening of the Mikvah in the Jewish community of Újlipótváros, the first since WWII, is a historic development. When Rabbi Baruch and Batsheva Oberlander arrived in Hungary as a young couple to serve as Shluchim many years ago, the Rebbe imposed a single condition for their settlement: “Only if there is a kosher Mikvah in Budapest!”

At that time, there was only one functioning Mivkvah in Budapest, which has changed with the opening of the new Chabad Mikvah last week. The building of the Mikvah was a joint effort of the Oberlanders, members of the Jewish community in Hungary, supporters, and the EMIH.

Participating in the festive ceremony were Rabbi Shlomo Koves, Chief Rabbi of EMIH; Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Waldman, founder of Mikvah Tahara Association; Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, Av Beit Din (Head of Religious Court) of Budapest’s Orthodox community; Rabbi Shmuel Glitzenstein of the Zsilip Center, and Rebbetzins Shoshi Glitzenstein and Bathsheva Oberlander.

The mikveh was built with the help of members of the local community and the Mikvah Tahara Association. This is only the second mikveh in Budapest, which has a large Jewish community. Thousands of Jewish families live in the vicinity of the Zsilip center in the Újlipótváros neighborhood, one of the most Jewish areas in Hungary.

The center was established to make Judaism accessible to neighborhood residents and it includes a synagogue, a large gymboree play space, a coffee shop, an event hall, a library, a club, study rooms, and more. The EMIH community operates 15 Chabad synagogues, a kindergarten, a high school, a university, a cheder, a rabbinic certification institute, a kosher slaughterhouse, restaurants, and many other institutions.

Chief Rabbi of EMIH, Shlomo Koves, said: “A mikveh is the foundation of every Jewish community. A Jewish community is comprised of families who form a stable foundation of community, and the commandments regarding family purity are a way of life for every Jewish couple. Today we were privileged to open a new mikveh in an area in which there had never been one before, even though many Jews had always lived there. This is an important testimony to the revival of the Jewish community in Budapest.”

“For a few years, I have been working together with the EMIH-Hungarian Jewish Alliance to open this wonderful mikveh in Zsilip,” said Shmuel Glitzenstein. “I am confident that this new mikveh will help even more families in Budapest and that even more people will find their place in our centre and help them to grow spiritually.”