“As in the past, so in the future …”

“As in the past, so in the future …”

After the war, Budapest’s decimated Jewish community made enormous efforts to reinvigorate itself, spiritually and culturally. A 1948 letter to Ernő Munkácsi from the Museum Association calls on him to serve “as in the past, so in the future.”

However, these efforts came to a halt in 1948-49 as Hungary’s new Stalinist regime sharply limited Jewish cultural and community life and took control of their religious practices. The nation’s 1950 National Jewish Assembly, hosted in the state room here at 12 Síp utca, epitomized the political pressures: with portraits of Lenin, Stalin, and Mátyás Rákosi watching over them, the Assembly gave in to political pressure, voting to merge Hungary’s diverse Jewish communities into one weakened, homogeneous organization.