Explore Budapest’s Jewish heritage through guided walks of cemeteries, synagogues, and historic quarters—stories of memory, ritual, architecture, and resilience with expert historians and architects across Budapest and Szentendre.
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A series of guided, on-foot explorations maps the history, architecture, life, losses, and resilience of Jewish communities across Hungarian neighborhoods. Stetl Jewish City Walks isn’t just about facades and street names; it opens doors into memory, ritual, and culture, past and present, through places that still carry those voices.
2026.03.01. 10:00 — Sold out. The Salgótarjáni Street Jewish Cemetery, closed to new burials, becomes a living classroom of funerary law and sacred architecture. Expect to discover Béla Lajta’s monument-like tomb designs, pause under the turul bird at the resting place of Vilmos Vázsonyi, and learn how Jewish burial customs shape space, ritual, and stone. Questions like who was laid to rest here and when the cemetery fell out of use are answered on site, with scripture and literature woven in alongside architecture and history. Guides: Dr. László Negyela with architecture journalist Dávid Zubreczki. Location: 1086 Budapest, Salgótarjáni Street (Salgótarjáni utca) 6.
2026.03.01. 11:30 — A second slot delves into the same themes among the cemetery’s grand crypts and solemn markers. Again guided by Dr. László Negyela and Dávid Zubreczki, it focuses on religious funerary prescriptions, aesthetics, and the people behind the names. Photo and audio recording may be made for web and social channels. Location: 1086 Budapest, Salgótarjáni Street (Salgótarjáni utca) 6. Price: $15.05 (Haver Card: $13.54).
2026.03.29. — Óbuda is home to the capital’s oldest still-functioning synagogue, once on Jewish Street (Zsidó utca), now Lajos Street (Lajos utca), by the Danube. Material traces and archival records sketch a once-thriving Jewish quarter, but the best way to feel this microcosm—whose signs have marked this Buda district since the 14th century—is to walk it. Lace up, find a stellar guide, and let the historic neighborhood unfold in culture and cuisine. Guide: historian Csaba Katona of the Hungarian National Archives. Participants are welcomed at the Óbuda Synagogue with classic kosher flódni. Meeting point: in front of Pastrami (corner of Nagyszombat Street and Lajos Street), 1036 Budapest, Lajos Street (Lajos utca) 93–99. Price: $13.68 (Haver Card: $12.31).
2026.04.19. — Újlipótváros, affectionately nicknamed Lipócia, is Pest’s incomparable Danube-side quarter. Walk with eyes open and its secrets surface. This area remains a cornerstone of Jewish life in Budapest. The route traces the Jewish memories of Lipócia through 19th- and 20th-century intellectuals, citizens, entrepreneurs, and politicians, spotlighting both national tragedies and uplifting chapters, the rapid rise of Budapest after 1873, the birth of Újlipótváros, and the everyday lives of residents—especially the Jewish community—over the last 150+ years. The walk ends in the present at ZSILIP, and participants receive 20% off at Brooklyn Bagel. Guide: historian Csaba Katona, Hungarian National Archives. Meeting point: Rabbi József Schweitzer memorial plaque, 1136 Budapest, Hegedűs Gyula Street (Hegedűs Gyula utca) 3. Price: $13.68 (Haver Card: $12.31).
2026.04.26. — Another deep dive into the Salgótarjáni Street Cemetery’s sacred architecture and ritual, led by Dr. László Negyela. Expect Lajta’s masterful memorials, the Vázsonyi turul, and the social history behind who is buried here and why it’s no longer in use. Photo and audio recording may be made and shared on web and social platforms. Location: 1086 Budapest, Salgótarjáni Street (Salgótarjáni utca) 6. Price: $9.58.
2026.05.10. — Szentendre is dubbed the city of painters—more precisely, with a few exceptions, the city of Jewish painters. That’s the surface. The town was also a site of forced labor for poet Miklós Radnóti, and home to Jewish families whose prized shops once lined the main square. This walk slips from past to present with stops that include: Kossuth Street–Deim Square (Kossuth utca–Deim tér) for Jewish family homes and stories; the Ferenczy Museum courtyard for the Radnóti memorial; Petőfi Street’s (Petőfi utca) former Jewish school and prayer house; Dumtsa Street’s (Dumtsa utca) Lajos Vajda plaque and the role of Jewish visual artists; the main square’s Jewish shops, family histories, and Stolpersteine; and the Szántó Memorial and Prayer House for local Jewish history and a Holocaust memorial. At Zsidóház Szentendre, Rabbi Mendy Myers gives a 10–15 minute talk. The Cháj Café greets walkers with fresh lemonade. Meeting point: Szentendre HÉV terminal, 2000 Szentendre. Guide: János Vajda. Price: $10.95 (Haver Card: $9.86).
2026.05.31. — The cemetery’s artistry returns to the spotlight with Dr. László Negyela joined by architect Zorán Vukoszávlyev, associate professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and a specialist in sacred architecture. The pair guides visitors through Lajta’s museum-worthy memorials, Vázsonyi’s turul, and the ritual grammar carved into every stone, while situating the site within the arc of community life and its closure. Price: $15.05 (Haver Card: $13.85). Location: 1086 Budapest, Salgótarjáni Street (Salgótarjáni utca) 6.
Organizers reserve the right to change dates and programs.
