Hungarian Jews are seeking government action to restore to the community a 19th-century synagogue purchased by a developer and now put on the market.
Jewish communal representatives are requesting the return of the building in downtown Budapest under a law passed last year that restores to church and synagogue groups property confiscated by the Communist state after World War II.
Communal leaders sold the synagogue on Rumbach Sebestyen Street in 1989 for $80,000 because they lacked funds for needed repairs.
The purchaser, a construction firm called Alba Regia, has now put the renovated building up for sale for $8 million in a newly emerging real estate market.
The community is offering to renounce its claim to two other former Jewish properties — a hospital and a grammar school — in exchange for the synagogue. The buildings are among the close to 80 properties claimed by the Jewish community under the new law.
The synagogue would serve mainly as an educational and cultural center. Hungary has 80,000 to 100,000 Jews, making it the largest Jewish community in Central Europe. However, relatively few attend synagogue services regularly.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
