Author: hersh

Somewhat similar to the Jewish Reform movement that evolved in Germany during the 19th century, the Neolog movement evolved in Hungary.

Oradea being part of the kingdom of Hungary until the accords of Trianon after WWI, has a magnificent Neolog Synagogue right in the center of the city. Nowadays, of course, not much is left of Oradea’s Jewry. (There is, however, a small Orthodox minyan in town and I hope to get to know them an bit on the way back.)

The building now serves as a museum and is open to the public every afternoon from 12pm to 7pm, except on Mondays. It is, thus, open on Shabbes, which some might find befitting a Neolog place.

Oradea, aka Nagyvarád, aka Großwardein, aka Groisverdain; i.e. גרויסווארדיין.
A small city of nearly 200.000 inhabitants, capital of Bihor county.
A place of history. Hungarian, over most past centuries; Romanian, since World War I left the Austro-Hungarian Empire in shambles.
A bilingual city with a bilingual population: Romanian and Hungarian. Not Yiddish; the Jews were sent to Auschwitz in 1944. (Nevertheless, when I ask around in my Shul back home in Vienna, I notice how many of my friends and acquaintances have roots in this town, or in other places in Bihor county, such as Szatmár / Satu Mare.)

A small river flows through the town. There are bicycle lanes along the river banks. Most houses I have seen north of the river are ancient one-storey buildings from before WWI, some rather derelict, some beautifully renovated. It is said, that the real-estate bubble, that shook countries such as Spain in the early 21st century, also had and has it’s grip on Romania. Here and there, we found sights that reminded us of this fact.

When viewed from aboard a train.

(Which shows how a point of view defines the view.)

Our trip will take us from Oradea to Satu Mare, where the Szatmár Chassidim originated; on to Sighetu Marmaţiei (birth place of Elie Wiesel, as well as Moshe Teitelbaum, who later became the Satmarer Rebbe) and Borsa and Radauti, where we will spend some time exploring the nearby towns of Putna, Suceava and, hopefully, Czernovits, the old capital of Bukovina.

We then plan to return to Oradea on a somewhat more southern route via Cluj. This is the route my father told me they took back in the 1930s.

This town in north-western Romania will be where we spend our first night. Continue reading First Stop: Oradea