The Hungarian Jewish Museum was constructed on the plot where Theodor Herzl‘s, known as the father of the State of Israel, two-story Classicist style house stood, and adjoins the Great Synagogue on Dohány Street in Budapest.
The museum holds the Jewish Religious and Historical Collection, a collection of religious relics of the Pest Hevrah Kaddishah (Jewish Burial Society), ritual objects of Shabbat and the High Holidays and a Holocaust room.
During my visit to Budapest in September 2019, I visited the Great Synagogue and the adjoining Jewish Museum. Three of the objects in the collection, that I found the most informative or poignant for varying reasons, are set out below, together with some information from the information plaques set out in the museum.
The above Hanukkah Menorah which is made of brass and intended for use in the Synagogue, was made in the 18th century in Poland. It is similar to the Golden Menorah of the Temple of Jerusalem except that the number of branches of the Menorah is different to the original. This is a requirement of Talmudic Law which forbids exact copies of sacred objects from the Temple in Jerusalem. The branches are decorated with blossoms and flowers, as described in the Second Book of Moses. The base stands on three small lions and on the top, there is an eagle with outstretched wings. The eagle resembles the eagle on the Polish royal coat of arms and also denotes God.
Hanukkah, or the festival of lights, is a Jewish festival commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days by lighting the candles of a Menorah, and additional one each night until all are lit on the final night of the festival.
The above curtain (parokhet) was a donation by Wolf Boskowitz to the Alt-Ofen synagogue in 1772. According to legend, it was a gift from Queen Maria Theresa to the community. A parokhet is used to separate the Torah ark from the main hall of the Synangogue.
From this window the site of the former gate of the Budapest ghetto can be seen. It overlooks the graves of over two thousand victims and is the largest Holocaust mass grave in Hungary.
You can find out more about the Great Synagogue and the Jewish Museum here: https://www.greatsynagogue.hu/gallery_syn.html
Whispers of the Past edited by Kaye Lynne Booth
Blurb
A paranormal anthology with nine stories from six authors, including the winning story in the 2019 WordCrafter Paranormal Short Fiction Contest, A Peaceful Life I’ve Never Known, by Jeff Bowles.
Contributing authors
Kaye Lynne Booth, Roberta Eaton Cheadle – 2 stories,
Julie Goodwen, Laurel McHargue – 2 stories,
Stevie Turner, Jeff Bowles.
About the author
Robbie, short for Roberta, is an author with five published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with her son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about her mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with her mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton).
All of Robbie’s children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications. Robbie has recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differentiate her children’s books from her adult writing, these will be published under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. Robbie has two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.
Find and follow Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Roberta Writes Blog Amazon Author Page Twitter Facebook
Books by Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Through the Nethergate
Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Margaret, a girl born with second sight, has the unique ability to bring ghosts trapped between Heaven and Hell back to life. When her parents die suddenly, she goes to live with her beloved grandfather, but the cellar of her grandfather’s ancient inn is haunted by an evil spirit of its own. In the town of Bungay, a black dog wanders the streets, enslaving the ghosts of those who have died unnatural deaths. When Margaret arrives, these phantoms congregate at the inn, hoping she can free them from the clutches of Hugh Bigod, the 12th century ghost who has drawn them away from Heaven’s White Light in his canine guise. With the help of her grandfather and the spirits she has befriended, Margaret sets out to defeat Hugh Bigod, only to discover he wants to use her for his own ends – to take over Hell itself.
While the Bombs Fell
What was it like for children growing up in rural Suffolk during World War 2?
Elsie and her family live in a small double-storey cottage in Bungay, Suffolk. Every night she lies awake listening anxiously for the sound of the German bomber planes. Often they come and the air raid siren sounds signalling that the family must leave their beds and venture out to the air raid shelter in the garden.
Despite the war raging across the English channel, daily life continues with its highlights, such as Christmas and the traditional Boxing Day fox hunt, and its wary moments when Elsie learns the stories of Jack Frost and the ghostly and terrifying Black Shuck that haunts the coastline and countryside of East Anglia.
Includes some authentic World War 2 recipes.
Robbie also writes as Robbie Cheadle
Robbie’s Inspiration Blog Goodreads Facebook YouTube
Amazon author page Twitter: @bakeandwrite
Books by Robbie and Michael Cheadle
The Sir Chocolate books are a delightful marriage of story, verse and cookery
… a perfect recipe for sharing with children. Silly Willy goes to Cape Town tells the adventures of two very different brothers…and includes five party cake ideas.
You can purchase the Sir Chocolate books from:
or you can buy them in South Africa directly from the authors by emailing Robbie Cheadle at sirchoc@outlook.com.
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Percy Bluffer-Baton, third in line to the Earldom of Twinkle-on-Haze sat on the small marsupial shaped crenellation that extruded from the grassy knoll and had a moment. Percy’s moments tended to be on the short side, almost dwarfish in their brevity and contain three parts randomised anxiety, a pinch of paranoia and the merest tintagal of a rosy hue. Mostly they followed the discovery of a sartorial discombobulation – a dangling button, an inelastic sock top or a worrisome loosening of some fundamental stitchery. Today’s however took on a more gluttonous texture: his spats were splattered in what could only be described as a formless muddy blob having cubist aspirations.
This calm landscape makes waiting a sweet pleasure: the stillness of the air, the lambs’s voices, the sharp green in the trees. Here you said once you would come back, so I wait here, every year, at the same spot, near the water, looking at the sky’s reflection.
“Skulking around.” That’s what Grandma Lindley would say. “Why you skulking around, child? Don’t you have better things to do than spy on folks?” That’s what she would ask me if she were alive today and saw me.
Edward walked into the garden. He sniffed the air and frowned.
About the author
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 