Szegő Dóra - Szegő György: Synagogues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2004)

The Lajos utca Synagogue

■ The Óbuda synagogue

Three steps lead to the stately, porticoed main front. The six Corinthian columns of the portico support a tympanum. On its crossbeam runs the Hebrew inscription, "Any man whosoever will make prayer and supplication shall spread forth his hands to this house," i. e., should praise the Lord. The inscription comes from the Biblical consecration prayer inspired by King Solomon's Jerusalem Temple-opening supplication and recited by the Óbuda rabbi Moshe Münz, who was born in Podol and earned his fame in Brody.

Due to the extension, the wall behind the portico became wider by five square windows on each level than the hall, which retained the size of the old church- space. The wall is articulated by pilaster strips aligned with the colonnade. The centralised interior alluding to the old synagogue was extended by a one- story gallery on the North side and a two-storey one on the side of the main front to the West. The gate in the main front opens into an entrance hallway below the front-side gallery rather than the temple interior itself, and then into a lobby, which is connected to the interior by three arches. Capping the main assembly hall is a spherical vault. Beneath the middle arch stood the bimah, painted greyish white with a gold trim. The banister of the wooden Torah-read- ing rostrum was shaped in the form of a lute, its wrought-iron steps decorated with lute and ihofar motifs. (The iho^ar is a horn trumpet calling the faithful

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