RUMBACH STREET SYNAGOGUE
The Rumbach Sebestyen street small synagogue in 1895.
Source of image: Fortepan / Budapest Archives. Id. HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.08.006.
Status Quo movement
After the Universal Israelite Congress of 1868-69, the Hungarian Jewry split into two major institutionally sectarian groups, Orthodox and Neolog. However, some communities rejected the split, and maintaining the millenial unified Jewish position, refused to join either of the groups. In reference to the situation before the congress, they took the name ‘status quo ante’. They represented a different point of view from the end of 1871, though a national organization only formed in 1928. In 1896, 76 primary and 171 secondary communities avowed these beliefs, and between the wars, 3,9 % of Hungarians of Jewish religion lived in status quo communities. In 1944, 14,289 people (2,7 %) belonged to 38 status quo communities. The status quo ante communities institutionally revived in 2004.
(article from: CENTROPA)
The synagogue was built in 1872 according to the design of the Viennese architect Otto Wagner in a fascinating Moorish Revival style.
Unfortunately the interior still has the post war conditions.
In the past few years the Rumbach synagogue was used for various cultural programs, for example exhibitions, like the one in 2014, on the 70th commemoration of the Holocaust, titled: Prayers after Auschwitz. The following video is in Hungarian, about the exhibition:
The synagogue closed its gates in January 2017 for renovations. It will reopen again in a few years propably as the Ethnographical Museum of the Jews of the Carpathian Basin.
Until it reopens again, please watch this wonderful documentary: