While visiting Europe’s largest synagogue, I realized one real danger for Jews isn’t anti-semitism, it’s that most Jews no longer know how to talk to God.

Last week I visited the largest synagogue in Europe. Fortunately, I was able to daven there with the loving and welcoming morning Shabbat minyan…and even was invited up for an aliyah to the Torah. Imagine an orthodox minyan with an organ! The rabbi, the chazzan and the choir were in great spirits. I even stood next to the choir and “joined” them trying to follow the conductor. My voice was not exactly on key, but I followed the timing and saw the conductor and choir smiling at me. I felt a bit at home, wondering if my great-great grandparents sang these tunes with this beautiful accent.

The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest is breathtaking. Soaring ceilings. Ornate details. It once served a vibrant Jewish community that at one point comprised 25% of Budapest. It stands as the largest synagogue in Europe seating 3000 congregants and second largest synagogue in the world. Today it is largely a museum, visited mostly by tourists carrying cameras, not prayer books, during the week. (No cell phones are allowed there on Shabbat!)

I couldn’t stop thinking: how does this happen? How does a building that magnificent become empty?

I know why it happened there. The Shoah saw to that, and decades of communism afterward made sure the silence held. This building didn’t lose its worshippers slowly. They were taken.

And yet standing there, what I felt wasn’t only grief for what was done to Hungarian Jewry. It was a harder, more uncomfortable question about communities that were never touched by either........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)