A new Chabad community center and mikvah have opened in the Hungarian city of Miskolc, reviving Jewish life in a community nearly annihilated during the Holocaust. It is also not far from the kever of Reb Yeshayaleh of Kerestir, and will serve the many guests who visit for his yahrtziet each year.

The powerful Jewish revival that has swept across Hungary in recent years – today considered the safest country in Europe for Jews – has reached even the city of Miskolc, located in the northeastern part of the country near the Slovakian border.

As the 80th anniversary approaches of the deportation of Miskolc’s Jews to the concentration camps during the summer of 1944, the city celebrated the inauguration of a spacious new Jewish community center and a magnificent, modern mikva. These new institutions serve the local Jewish population as well as the many visitors who travel each year to the resting place of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner (Reb Yeshayaleh of Kerestir) in the nearby town of Bodrogkeresztúr, about a 40-minute drive from the city.

Spearheading the city’s Jewish revival and overseeing the new campus are the Rebbe’s shluchim, Rabbi Avraham Braun and his wife, who arrived in Miskolc about two years ago.

Before the Holocaust, Miskolc was home to approximately 12,000 Jews. After the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II, the Germans and their local collaborators rounded up the Jews of Miskolc and the surrounding region, confining them in a ghetto established in a brick factory on Tatar Street.

The conditions in the ghetto were extremely harsh, and the Jews crammed into the space endured severe mistreatment by the local gendarmes. Most were deported to Auschwitz nearly 81 years ago, and the remainder were sent in two additional transports in the days that followed. Only a few hundred Miskolc Jews survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Today, the city is home to about 1,000 Jews, including some who settled there after the war from the former Soviet Union.

With the support of EMIH – the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities – Rabbi Braun established the new Jewish community center on Kazinczy Street, in the heart of the historic Jewish quarter. The center is designed to be a vibrant hub of continuous Jewish activity. Just days earlier, directly across the street, the beautiful new mikva was also inaugurated.

Participating in the community center’s inauguration were shliach and rabbi of the EMIH, Rabbi Shlomo Koves, the city’s mayor Mr. Pál Veres, and other honored guests.

Rabbi Braun shared: “This new building will bring a revolution of light to the Jewish life of Miskolc. It features large spaces for lectures and programs, and includes an industrial kitchen to prepare hot meals for needy Jews in the city and nearby areas. With G-d’s help, we plan to offer lectures and classes, children’s programs, chavrusa learning, cultural events, and meals for hungry Jewish children. Next year, we hope to open a Jewish daycare and preschool here, and we are currently seeking appropriate staff.”

Rabbi Koves added: “Decades after the near destruction of Miskolc’s Jewish community, we are witnessing a beautiful renewal and resurgence. What is happening here stands as a remarkable testimony to the religious freedom enjoyed by Jews throughout Hungary – inspired by Prime Minister Mr. Viktor Orbán and his government – and to the profound sense of security that allows us to live proudly Jewish lives without fear, even as dark clouds once again gather over Europe.”