Celebrating Jewish culture

THE Jewish Summer Festival is now in full swing, introducing a wide range of cultural events to locals and visitors alike.

The event, organized by the Tourism and Cultural Center of the Jewish Community of Budapest, features versatile entertaining and educational programs in diverse venues of the capital, but also in other cities in Hungary such as Nagykörös, Vác, Kiskunhalas, Karcag, and abroad in Serbia`s Szabadka/Subotica.

The festival has gained increased popularity since it was launched nine years ago, and has became part of the international cultural scene by inviting, alongside local Jewish talents, artists from around the world.

This year the Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman, who is one of the most appreciated young artists of our time (he was described by the Washington Post as having `a commanding technique, spontaneity, and visionary breadth... capable of both delicate nuances and incendiary passion`), played his Stradivarius, accompanied by Ferenc Liszt

Chamber Orchestra, at the Dohány Street Synagogue.

The musical play Gloomy Sunday, staged today (Thursday, Aug 31) at the Uránia, is another highlight of the festival in this production by the Veszprém Pannon Theater.

The melancholic eponymous song, Gloomy Sunday, composed by Rezsô Seress (who is evoked in the play), became known as the hymn of suicide at the end of the 1930s.

It became famous throughout the world, being performed by stars as diverse as Billy Holliday, Ray Charles and Sinead O`Connor.

Legend has it that the song has a particular magical, but deadly, effect on those who hear it, who can fall into a depression so deep that they finally commit suicide.

The composer himself did indeed take his life in January 1968, before he turned 70 years old, by jumping out of the window of his flat.

On Saturday (Sep 2) the Yiddish Theater presents the composer, writer and satirist Georg Kreisler`s Tonight: Lola Blau, at the Urania Cinema Palace on Rakóczi út 21.

The play has as its sole protagonist the remarkable Bucharest actress Maia Morgenstein, who is a guest at the Jewish Summer Festival for the second time.

Famous at home, Morgenstein became known around the world when she appeared in Mel Gibson`s controversial film The Passion of Christ, playing the role of the Virgin Mary.

The musical (being performed here in the original Yiddish) is set against the background of the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Lola Blau is a fictional Jewish singer who escapes Austria and develops a flourishing career in the United States before returning to her native country after the war.

The Klezmer musical The Wedding will be staged at the Budapest Operetta Theater on Nagymezô utca.

The story, based on a play by Ottó Indig, is set in a Romanian-Hungarian-Jewish village in Transylvania. It is the fateful tale of a girl who finds out she is Jewish, after she`s been raised a Catholic by her adopted family. This revelation brings misfortune upon her, as the man she is supposed to marry, hearing the news about her background, runs away and joins the army, while the Jewish community turns its back on her because of her Catholic upbringing.

Havanna Gila is a group of four who have got together exclusively for this summer`s festival.

They play famous Klezmer songs in the style of the Cuban Buena Vista Social Club, adding humorous twists. The intriguing performance promises to be a musical treat, and will take place on Monday, Sep 4 at the Uránia Cinema Palace.

The synagogue on Rumbach Sebestyen utca is open to the public for the first time since the Second World War. An edifice of Moorish architecture, it now hosts an installation of images, sounds and light effects which tell biblical stories in 12 movements, in the beautiful cupola chamber.

The life of Hungarian Jewish people is revealed in Tamás Vajda`s photographs (as seen above), executed with passion and love for his community.

They are exhibited in Révay utca`s Bálint Jewish Congregational House.

The accompanying film festival starts on Sep 1 at the Örokmozgó. Journey to Jerusalem is the story of two German-Jewish kids who escaped to Bulgaria.

Odessa! Odessa! depicts the dramatic lives of members of the Jewish community in Odessa who live now in New York and Israel.

Go, See and Become, directed by Radu Mihaileanu, who also directed The Train of Life, tells the story of an Ethiopian mother who saves her son from a refugee camp in Sudan by claiming he is a Jew.

The Hungarian film The Jewish Quarter, as its title suggests, tells the story of the Jewish part of Budapest.

The Jewish community of Hungary, with its 80,000 members, is one of the largest in the region.

This festival was initially a successful attempt to introduce and familiarize Hungary and its neighboring countries with the rich cultural heritage of Hungarian Jews, but it is increasingly becoming an international event through the performances of worldfamous Jewish artists.

For more information on the exact time and other Jewish Summer Festival events, check www.zsidonyarifesztival.hu.

Andreea Anca
www.budapestsun.com - Thursday, August 31, 2006