Help us sustain Reform Judaism in Hungary!
The roots of Reform Judaism lead back to 19th century Hungary. Though it has been re-established for the last 20 years, now it’s very existence is endangered!
Congregation Sim Shalom in Budapest, Hungary, was the first to embrace egalitarian Reform and Progressive Jewish practice after the fall of Communism. The founding members, including our rabbi and her generation were second generation Shoa survivors, who were disconnected from their Jewish identity first by the Nazi persecution of their parents, and later by the anti-religious environment of the Communist era. Our rabbi Katalin Kelemen is the first female rabbi serving in Hungary. She is a native of this country, but she was trained and ordained at Leo Baeck College in London since the Budapest rabbinical seminary is not open to women.
Today, the community is facing grave financial problems due to a change in legal status last year as a result of the legislation that crippled one of our primary local donation channels. Currently about $30,000 is missing from our annual budget even after reducing the salaries of our rabbi and executive director – our full non-volunteer staff.
Please help us by direct donation, by spreading the word and with your moral support that could lead to more effective diplomatic pressure on the Hungarian Government.
While the international press is full of anti-Semitic incidents in Hungary, our biggest issue is to maintain the growing community that had five B’nei Mitzvot in the past year, grew by dozens of teenagers in the past 2-3 years, and entered into interfaith cooperation with various Christian, Muslim and pluralistic Jewish groups. The best way to fight anti-Semitism is to maintain well functioning houses of prayer and study and to have an open-door policy to all who would like to learn and practice Jewish traditions.
While Sim Shalom recently decided to join the other Hungarian Reform congregation (Bet Orim) in setting up a local umbrella organization, the current legislation on religious groups is changing the legal background for it, and this did not yet result in restoration of our legal status that would equal those of the Orthodox and Neolog (non-egalitarian Conservative) and Chabad congregations.
Sim Shalom’s appeal to the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights was joined by other religious organizations, but any decision and appeals could take years, and it is not sure if a decision would be implemented by the Government of Hungary.
Most donations coming from US congregations, through Federations and the JDC are directed to other (above mentioned) Hungarian Jewish organizations that are non-egalitarian and “traditional”. These local Jewish organizations also exclude our congregations from any share of Holocaust community restitution funding from the Government of Hungary which adds up to $7 million per year, using the government denial of legal status as an excuse. This happens even though the two Reform congregations are supported by almost 10% of the total affiliated Jews in Hungary (based on 2011 figures), and is the fastest growing Jewish religious denomination!
Please act now to support our communities:
- spread the word in your congregation
- subscribe to our monthly English e-mail newsletters
- learn more about us from our English website
- support our cause either through our US support group “Friends of Sim Shalom”
or through direct donations to Hungary via bank transfer
Friends of Sim Shalom is a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation, and has federal and California tax exempt status. Contributions to Friends of Sim Shalom are tax deductible under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
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B’Shalom,
|
Rabbi Katalin Kelemen |
Gabor Radvanszki |
Lowell Nigoff |
Contact us if you have any questions: info@sim-shalom.org
