Synagogue

Hey! Today dad and I went to the old Jewish Synagogue that is in Budapest. It is a building 150-200 years old! Well, not really, it had to be renovated after WWII.

A synagogue ( pronounced Sin-a-gog) is a place of worship for Jews. This synagogue is not designed like other synagogues. You can often find a eight-pointed star on the walls instead of the six-pointed Jewish star. That is because the eight-pointed star is the Arab star, and the architect that designed the building wanted to show the importance of the Middle East, where the Jewish state is, so he put the Arabic star in there. Of course, 150 years ago, the Arabs and the Jews weren't fighting like they are now.

The Synagogue also has a cemetery next to it. That is because in the Holocaust the Jews were forced into a ghetto, a small space where they were forced to live in isolation from the outside world, and the synagogue was inside the ghetto walls so the Nazis forced the Jews to bury their dead inside the synagogue. Now that is usually forbidden in Jewish culture, but there is an exception for synagogues like this one.

They also had a memorial to Raoul Wallenberg there. Raoul Wallenberg was an emissary sent over to Hungary, and he and the other emissaries saved maybe 30,000 Jew's lives. If I had been born a boy, I would have been named after him.

I really liked the synagogue. I felt at home there, and since both my great-grandmothers came from Budapest I feel I have a right to go to the synagogue, as I am 25% Hungarian. It's a nice feeling.