To Jews in America and Israel, especially those of Hungarian descent, the very name Debrecen is redolent with Jewish history. There are synagogues, rabbis, and even kosher supervisions that proudly bear its name.
Yet to the Jews who live in the city, a two-hour drive from Budapest, it’s just home.
For the Israeli medical students who come to study at the University of Debrecen, it may just be home for a year or two. And for many of the descendants of Holocaust survivors who rebuilt their lives there, it may be the only home they ever had.
This week, they banded together to celebrate the historic appointment of Rabbi Shmuel Faigen, who has served as director of Chabad on Campus in Debrecen since 2010 as rabbi of the local community, as well as rabbi of the EMIH-Hungarian Jewish Association
It was the first time an Orthodox rabbi had been formally installed in Debrecen “(pronounced in Yiddish as deb-reh-TZEEN)” since the Holocaust, during which the majority of the city’s Jewish population had been slaughtered.
Recognizing the Holocaust’s continued effect on the local community, Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, who traveled to Hungary for the inauguration, stated: “On behalf of the Israeli Rabbinate, I wish to acknowledge the unprecedented renaissance of the Hungarian Jewish community. I have been to Hungary four times in the past 10 years, and each time I see more and more synagogues opening, and more people going to Jewish schools and synagogues.” He also made it a point to thank EMIH for its efforts on behalf of the Jewish community.
A native of Kfar Chabad, Israel, Faigen first visited Debrecen in 2008 while a student at the Pesti Jesiva, the Chabad-run institution for advanced Torah scholarship in Budapest. As early as 2003, students from the Pesti Jesiva had been traveling to Debrecen to hold Shabbatons and other types of events for the students, but Faigen was the first to begin visiting on a weekly basis.
In 2010, together with his wife, Riki, he settled in the city and opened a full-time Chabad center for students.
At the same time, the Faigens threw themselves into helping the elderly locals. Amazingly, the city still has a fully functioning synagogue with daily prayer services. The city’s large synagogue is too big for the now truncated community, so regular services are held in a smaller, newly renovated synagogue.
Although the young Israelis and elderly Hungarians seem to have little in common at first, Faigen says he has discovered that they gain tremendously from each other.
This cooperation with the local Jewish community led to its decision to elect him community rabbi in 2019, an appointment that was celebrated with pomp and ceremony this week.
The celebration comes nearly 20 years after Hungarian-born Rabbi Slomó Köves was feted as the first Orthodox rabbi ordained in the country since the Holocaust.
This week, Köves stood by proudly as Faigen was draped in a new tallit as a sign of his new office.
The ceremony was followed by the festive opening of the Debrecen Jewish House, located at 5-7 Piac Utca. In addition to serving as a center for religious, cultural and educational programs, it is the new home of the Debrecen’s first kosher restaurant in recent years, Hamsza.
“The city of Debrecen functions because of its citizens, such as those in the local Jewish community,” said Debrecen Deputy Mayor István Puskás, who shared that he had already enjoyed a tasty meal at the restaurant.
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