A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 44. (2005)

Komoróczy Géza: Mád: A 18. század végi zsinagóga héber feliratai

THE SYNAGOGUE OF MÁD (NORTH-EASTERN HUNGARY): HEBREW INSCRIPTIONS The late-Baroque synagogue in Mád is one of the most valuable historic synagogues in Hungary. Mád is a vine-growing village in North-Eastern Hungary (Zemplén, now Borsod-AbaújZemplén county), and Jews-involved in the vine trade toward Poland, Ukraine, Russia-lived there from the 16/17th century on. Their synagogue stands outside of the Román Catholic core of the village (similar to the church of the Protestant community). The present building, built in the laté 18th century, was in permanent use until the deportation of the Jews (May, 1944). In the post WW-1I period the community was restored, but after the emigration of the small remnant of the local Jews to Israel, the building was abandoned. Due to its historic value, it stands under protection as a state monument of architecture since 1953. A partial restoration took place in 1979. Now, between 1999 and 2004, a team of architects and art historians completed the rcconstruction of the building. The works were directcd by Ágnes Benkő & Péter Wirth (architects), and Ferenc Dávid (art histórián). Their work aimed at restoring the latest conditions of the building with a possibly tüll preservation of the carlicr / oldest details, including the inscriptions. The building was honored by the "Európa Nostra" committee of the European Union with an honorary diploma in 2005. The rabbi's house and yeshiva of the famous R. Amram Blum (1834-1907, at Mád: 1864-1881) and R. Mordechai Leib Winkler (1844-1932, at Mád: 1899-1932), scions of Hungárián orthodoxy, is in itself by no means a less important architectural monument, and it still awaits restoration. The paper publishes the text of the Hebrcw inscriptions on the walls of the synagogue, reconstructed from old photos and survived fragments by the present writer. The inscription on the arch of the entrance door (no. 1) marks the year of construction (1795), the painted chronogram in the vestibule, above the hand-washing basin (no. 2) and of the box for donations (no. 3) perhaps marks the date of the consecration of the synagogue (1798). These dates ránk the synagogue of Mád as the second or third among the synagogue buildings in Hungary which survived from the 18th century, from the period after the Turkish wars when the Jewish resettlement of Hungary started again. Rather unusual for the time, inscriptions no. 7, 9, 10 and 11 (implemented in wood block letters), prayers and a verse from the Zohar, contain names of the donators. Since the inscriptions are concentrated on and around the Ark, these people probably were wealthy community members who contributed to the richly decorated Ark and the inner decoration of the eastern and northern wall. According to the tradition, in 1783 the Pinsk (later Berdichev) tzaddik, Levi Jitzhak ben Meir (ca. 1740-1810) visiled R. Moshc Wahl, then the rabbi of Mád, and later on the Rymanower, Menahem Mendel (7-1815) too paid a visit to the village. The local Avraham Teitelbaum, possibly a relatíve to the Ujhely Hasidic rebe Moshe Teitelbaum, and Avraham's wife donated the Ark (according to its chronogram, no. 11, below, in 1811). The wall inscriptions beside the Ark and on the northern wall of the inner room were placed after the Ark was set on its place. The Zohar quotation (no. 9) indicates an emerging mystic spirituality in the Mád community. Marble plate inscriptions on the western wall of the inner room (no. 5 and 6), made after WW-II, originally placed on the right side of the eastern wall and relocated during the restoration, commemorate the community members deporled to Auschwitz and their last rabbi, R. Moshe Leib Ehrenreich and his mother, widow of the former rabbi of the community, R. Hayyim Zvi Ehrenreich (died 1937). Géza Komoróczy 187