Jewish university in Hungary to be renovated, the government promises

The government has allocated over 13.5 billion forints (EUR 35m) for the renovation of the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies in 2027-2028, the EU affairs minister said on Monday.

Jewish university in Hungary to be renovated

János Bóka noted in a post on Facebook that the Jewish Theological Seminary, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year, opened its doors on October 4, 1877, and quickly became a defining institution of the Neolog Jewish movement.

The financial foundation for the institution was provided by the Jewish Education Fund, established by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1850 from fines imposed on Jews for their participation in the 1848-49 Hungarian Revolution, he added.

He wrote that, to date, more than 300 rabbis have been ordained there under the authority of such eminent scholars as David Kaufmann, Ignac Goldziher, Lajos Blau and Sandor Scheiber.

One of the world’s most prestigious collections

The university’s library is one of the world’s most prestigious collections of Jewish religious literature. In 1944, Adolf Eichmann sent part of the collection to Prague to be displayed in a “museum of extinct races”. The books were rediscovered in the basement of the Prague National Museum in the 1980s, and some were returned to Budapest in 1989, the minister recalled.

Boka noted that after the second world war, the rabbinical seminary had to be rebuilt from almost nothing. East of the Iron Curtain, it was the only institution of its kind, attracting students from across eastern Europe.

After the regime change, a new chapter began in the history of the rabbinical seminary. Today, the university offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes, not only in traditional disciplines, but also in fields such as community organising and social work, the minister said.

Boka said the Hungarian government and nation were repaying a long-standing debt by fully renovating the building and ensuring 21st-century educational conditions in the renewed rabbinical seminary.

“The rabbinical seminary is part of our national pride and cultural heritage,” the minister declared.

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