Budapest’s first Jewish Quarter actually law across the river, where the community thrived since the rule of King Béla IV in the 13th Century. Following the Ottoman occupation, the Habsburgs deported many of the Jews, and for centuries they could not live inside the city limits. When Budapest unified Buda, Pest and Óbuda, in 1873, there was already a substantial population in the city. The area known as the Jewish Quarter today sprung up outside Pest’s city walls in the 18th century. The synagogues in the district reflect different aspects of Budapest’s Jewry.

The main synagogue in Dohány street is the largest synagogue in Europe, and the second largest in the world, belongs to a group known as the Neolog Jews, a uniquely Hungarian branch of Judaism that wanted to modernise the religion with the intention of integrating into Hungarian society. The art nouveau synagogue on Kazinczy Street, despite drawing its artistic influences from Hungarian folk art, actually, houses the Orthodox community. The third synagogue on Rumbach Sebestyén street, no longer functions as a synagogue, served the community known as the ‘status quo ante’, after refusing to join either community or take part in the rift.

Each synagogue is aesthetically different, with the Great Synagogue and the Rumbach Sebestyén Synagogue sporting a neo-orientalist styles of their own, while the Kazinczy Street Synagogue follows a more art nouveau look.