Budapest’s Zsilip community center is opening its doors wide in 2026 with a buzzy, welcoming mix: a kosher café and bagel bar, music, theater, study programs, and a two-level playhouse. It’s a meeting place for all ages and backgrounds to connect with Jewish culture and tradition in a relaxed, inquisitive spirit. The address: 1137 Budapest, District 13, Újpest Embankment (Újpesti rakpart) 1. Alongside programs, you’ll find practical info on dates, nearby stays, and food and drinks on site.
Weekly Havruta Study House
Running for a third uninterrupted year, Havruta – the House of Learning Together – continues on Mondays and Wednesdays, two hours each day. In this beit midrash–style setting, participants learn in small groups, thinking aloud together, yeshiva-style, where study isn’t just academic but a worldview and a way of life. Community is the backbone: Jewish learning thrives when it’s shared.
Wednesday schedule:
– 5:30 PM The Era of the Messiah: philosophy and halacha with Rabbi Baruch Oberlander
– 6:30 PM The Book of Mitzvot: the 613 commandments with Rabbi Jonatan Megyeri
Monday schedule:
– 6:30 PM The weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Samuel Glitzenstein
– 7:30 PM The role of women in Judaism with Rebbetzin Sarah Nógrádi
Sessions run on 2026.04.22, 04.27, 04.29, 05.04, 05.06, 05.11, 05.13 in Budapest, inviting everyone hungry for knowledge to walk through Zsilip’s gate and join in.
Friday Playtime: Welcome to Shabbat
“Péntekecske péntek este” turns Friday nights into a family-friendly Shabbat welcome. While adults listen to Rabbi Glitzi’s teaching in the synagogue, a madricha leads a playful program for kids in the Zsiliputi playhouse with stories and pictures about the weekly portion, Shabbat, and current holidays. The more you pay attention, the more likely you’ll snag a gift—and yes, there’s even a raffle. Bring the whole family and learn together on Shabbat. Dates include 2026.04.24 and 2026.05.01 in Budapest.
Zsiliputi Jewish Sunday School
Sunday mornings are back at Zsilip with the refreshed Zsiliputi Zsidó Vasárnapi Iskola. Generations of kids have treasured these playful, memory-making Sundays—and now the school returns to Zsilip Center’s two-story playhouse and multiple study rooms. A young, enthusiastic team welcomes children and teens aged 4–14 on Sundays from 10:00 to 12:30 for age-group sessions where everyone:
– prepares for holidays together,
– learns about mitzvot together,
– discovers traditions together,
– and picks up values that stick for life.
Whether you’re little, a tween, training to be a counselor, or approaching bar/bat mitzvah, this is for you. Dates: 2026.04.26, 05.03, 05.10 in Budapest.
Babylon Dossier: A Monodrama of Survival
Babylon Dossier (Babilon dosszié) brings to the stage the voice of Olga Galló, a radiant, talented young writer deported to Auschwitz at age 30 with her mother. In the death camp and later in other camps, she kept a diary—securing paper and pencils even at the cost of part of her food ration—because writing meant survival, a way to escape the unbearable present for the life she once had and longed for again.
She survived but lost almost everything: her mother, her dearest sibling, her home, and even the literary gift that had sustained her. In the postwar world, she acted as if nothing had happened, leaving the diary untouched. Two decades later, after a nervous breakdown, she reopened it on medical advice and decided to publish. The Kádár era, built on silencing trauma, didn’t welcome the idea—but Olga Galló wouldn’t give up.
This extraordinary camp diary, together with the correspondence documenting her fight to publish it, reemerges as a unique monodrama. Performed by her granddaughter, Andrea Fullajtár, it’s an intensely personal piece that sets the darkest chapter of 20th-century Europe alongside the absurd, tragicomic world of socialism, coaxing a bittersweet smile even in sorrow.
Text adapted from the manuscript of Olga Galló’s Ten Months in Babylon (Tíz hónap Babilon) and the author’s letters. Credits:
– Performed by: Andrea Fullajtár
– Writer: Olga Galló
– Dramaturg: Róbert Solt
– Music: Botond Lelkes
– Poster photo: Péter Németh
– Poster design: László Csáfordi
– Director: Máté Szabó
Date: 2026.05.10, Budapest. Price: 5,900 Ft (about USD), with Haver Card: 5,015 Ft (about USD).
Come In, Look Around, Stay Awhile
Zsilip is a place to drop by and linger—whether for a bagel and coffee in the kosher café, a thought-provoking lecture, a playdate that turns into a lesson, or a study session that becomes a habit. It’s a living hub for easy, meaningful connection to Jewish culture. With regular Havruta classes, Friday family Shabbat welcomes, the returning Sunday School, and a searing, singular theater piece in Babylon Dossier (Babilon dosszié), the 2026 calendar is stacked—and it’s all at 1 Újpest Embankment (Újpesti rakpart), in Budapest’s 13th District.
