Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest

The Budapest University of Jewish Studies (Hungarian: Országos Rabbiképző – Zsidó Egyetem, or Országos Rabbiképző Intézet / Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies / German: Landesrabbinerschule in Budapest) is a university in Budapest, Hungary. It was opened in 1877, a few decades after the first European rabbinical seminiaries had been built in Padua, Metz, Paris and Breslau. Still, it remains the oldest existing institution in the world where rabbis are graduated.

Orthodox Hungarian rabbis were very much against a rabbinical seminary. In order to prevent its establishment in Budapest, they sent a delegation to Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria in Vienna. However, the Emperor was favorable to the rabbinical school and even financed its construction, giving back to the Hungarian Jews the money they had had to pay 30 years before as a war tax after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.The growing liberal segment in Hungarian Jewish society, known as Neologs, were interested in secularly-educated clergy and their leaders strove to have a modern seminary.

On October 4, 1877, the seminary was opened in József körút. Its first principal was Moses Löb Bloch, who was assisted by David Kaufmann and Wilhelm Bacher.

On March 19, 1944 German troops marched into Budapest (Operation Margarethe). The next day, the rabbinical seminary was confiscated by the SS and turned into a prison. From there, Adolf Eichmann organized the deportation of thousands of Hungarian Jews and some political detainees into the concentration camps, mainly to Auschwitz.

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