A delegation of Chassidic rabbis met this week with Hungarian President Pal Schmitt to talk about ways to fight anti-Semitism in the former Communist country. The Chabad-Lubavitch world movement, known for its international outreach to fellow Jews, is opening a new branch in the city of Debrecen as part of the effort to increase Jewish education and beef up Jewish identity.

Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky of Lubavitch World Headquarters met with President Schmitt in an hour-long discussion together with a delegation from the local Jewish community. “Here,” Schmitt affirmed following the meeting, “[Chabad] always has an open door.”

Kotlarsky was in the country to mark the appointment of an eighth team of emissaries to join seven others who already are working in the country, all of whom are based in Budapest. Rabbi Shmuel Feigin and his wife Rivkah, both Israelis, are slated to open the new branch in Debrecen, Hungary´s second-largest city after Budapest.

Home to approximately 4,000 Jews, Debrecen also plays host to some 1,000 Israeli students who attend the medical school there.

“Who would have thought that from the ashes of the Holocaust and the suppressive Communist regime, Jews would once more gather in the Obuda synagogue,” he told Lubavitch.com. He described the reemergence of Jewish life in the country as a “spiritual renaissance.”

During World War II, the city was nearly leveled, with 70 percent of its buildings suffering damage, and at least half of them completely destroyed. After the war, Debrecen became the capital of Hungary for a short time as citizens began to rebuild, until the country was taken over by a Communist regime.

The addition of Rabbi Feigin and his wife was announced at a special banquet held at the synagogue, the oldest standing Jewish house of worship in Hungary. The Obuda was recently renovated with a grant from the Rohr Family Foundation. (© IsraelNN Syndications 12/30/10)