Pecs is one of Hungary's largest cities with about 150,000 people. It's a college town and has also been named one of the three European Capitals of Culture. Because of this designation a great deal of the old city is under construction, making it rather loud and congested when we initially stopped here a few days ago on our way to the Villany wine tasting region. But during our short stop we did visit the last remaining pre-WWII synagogue in the city.
We were greeted at the door by an old man sleeping in a chair in the front of the building. His name was Bela and he awoke with a start to usher us into the synagogue. He asked us where we were from- the USA- and he grinned exposing his blackened rotting front teeth and said, "oh the Jews love the USA!" Then he established that I was Jewish and Jon was not and told us we were both "lucky!" He handed us a seven page booklet with the history of the synagogue and showed us into the sanctuary. I sat in the Pews and read the booklet while Jonny snapped pics. Like the temple on Dohany street in Budapest, this synagogue was very grand with a bit of wear and tear.
As we were leaving we asked Bela if there were to be any services for Rosh Hashanah. His eyes lit up and he dragged us over to a paper with two highlighted sentences written in Magyar. There are two days of the year that they hold services in the synagogue, the eve of Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidre, the eve of Yom Kippur. The rest of the time services are held in a community center (much more like what I'm used to.) The reason they don't use the synagoge is because there are only 120 Jews left in this city after the "De-Judaization of Pécs" during the Holocust.
I was very happy to have the chance to go to high holiday services here and spend it with this tiny community which has persisted despite such a hateful history. It seems that even recently there has been antisemitic attacks on this community. It takes a pretty insecure person to be worry about 120 people in a city of 150,000.
On a positive note, we were excited to return and Bela was too. He said, "we'll be waiting for you on Friday!". Ok then, we had to come back. We booked a room at the hotel overlooking the temple and returned last night for services. We were expecting 120 elderly folks waiting for us at the door. We definitely gave ourselves too much credit. To our surprise and joy it was a typical scene inside. Kids were running around, old ladies that look like my grandmas were chatting in the pews, and young men were sneaking in for their once-a-year visit to shul. It was like any other high holiday gathering except smaller and in a much grander setting. No tickets required. We sat (and stood) through the one hour service. Jonny experienced the up/down nature of Jewish prayer. We listened to a sermon in Magyar. People looked relatively bored as always. Two girls played hide and seek in the pews and I remembered the days of sneaking out of services with my friends to run around the synagogue property. All in all it was a great way to spend the holiday.
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