The Jewish service in Communist Hungary: A personal journey

Abstract

This article summarizes the problems that hindered the practice of Jewish ritual music in Hungary during the Communist period. The first part describes the character of the music of the traditional Jewish service, pointing out those characteristics that made this music difficult for the modern middle class to accept. It is suggested that the specific character of Jewish ritual music contributed to its marginal position before and after World War II. The second part treats the problem of Jewish identity as an ethnicity in modern Hungary during the pre‐World War II and the Communist period and describes the reasons for and the process of isolation of the religious Jewish community. As a result of this isolation, the Jewish service was practised like an underground activity ‐ a circumstance that transformed its music. The article recounts the personal story of the author as a collector of Jewish ritual music in the Communist era in Hungary.