Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Budapest Festival Orchestra To Perform at Hungary’s Great Dohany Synagogue

The Budapest Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming December 1 Concert at Budapest’s glorious Great Dohany Street Synagogue was announced by Hungary’s Consul General Dr. Ferenc Kumin at the New York consulate’s Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution [which began on October 23, 1956 as a national revolt against Soviet occupation and repression]. The Dohany concert —featuring six time Grammy Award-winning pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim and BFO founder and conductor Ivan Fischer— will be the launch of the BFO’s concert series in abandoned synagogues which was begun two years ago. Through these synagogue concerts the BFO aims to visit every abandoned synagogue in the country. The BFO will also offer free concerts at Hungary’s elderly homes and childcare institutions.

“What was it like back in 1956—to suffer under Communism in Hungary?” posited Amb. Kumin. Quoting from a “Victims of Communism Foundation” study he stated: “One third of the millennials believe that more people were killed under George W. Bush than under Stalin…twenty-five percent have a favorable view of Lenin… half of the millennials believe that Communism was a problem compared to 80% of Baby Boomers and 91% of elderly Americans…. Quite a radical difference.”

Chairman of The Friends of the Budapest Festival Orchestra Stephen E. Benko thanked the event’s board members whose roster included event chair Sylvia Hemingway, honorary chair Daisy Soros, Ambassador to Hungary (1994-1997) Donald M. Blinken and journalist/writerKati Martin whose late husband was ambassador Richard Holbrooke and in her vivid autobiography “’Enemies of The People: My family’s Journey to America” describes her 1956/57 childhood eyewitness memories of Hungary in “The Communist Terror State.”

Touting BFO founder Fisher, Benko informed: “After only thirty years in existence, the BFO is now one of the top ten orchestras in the world! As proof of its stellar renown, the one hundred guests at the consulate were treated to a vibrant performance of Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet No 1. Op 12 by BFO’s Antonia Bodo [violin]. Noemi Molnar[violin], Csaba Galfi[viola] and Lajos Dvorak [cello].

Consul general Kumin also detailed the 10-year long struggle to put up a memorial to the ’56 Revolution heroes in New York that will finally be realized at the Joseph L. Kossuth Memorial at 130th Street and Riverside Drive.

The evening concluded with a savory Hungarian buffet featuring irresistible pastries and salads.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.