Dohany street Synagogue
On December 15, 1850, the leaders of the Jewish Community of Pest decided to build a representative synagogue on Dohány Street. This was the first synagogue in Hungary to be built on land owned by the Jewish community. Several architects were invited to submit proposals. Finally, after a lengthy process, Ludwig Förster, the architect of the synagogue on Tempelgasse in Vienna, was commissioned to design the building.
Construction began in 1854 and lasted five years, with some delays. The lithograph above was created by Karl Schumann, Förster’s assistant, at the Ludwig Förster architectural studio, presumably around 1857. Following disputes over payments between the architect and the Jewish community, Förster terminated the collaboration on November 15, 1857.
The Dohány Street Synagogue was inaugurated on September 6, 1859. The symbolic act marking the completion of the building was the placement of the capstone into the Torah ark using a silver trowel made especially for the occasion. The community preserved the trowel, along with the synagogue keys, in a special box and placed it in the museum collection of Jewish collective memory.
This iconic building of the Hungarian Jewish community also became a symbol of the split between Orthodox and Neolog Judaism. The synagogue’s congregation advocated for emancipation and cultural assimilation, as well as the modernization of Jewish rituals and life. They broke with many traditions.