After seeing so many lavishly large churches, it was nice to see this synagogue. It's the second largest in Europe. Unfortunately we are unable to tour the Synagogue or it's museum because we arrived by train on Friday afternoon and the tours ended at 3:30 and it's closed on Sunday for Simcha Torah. We did have an opportunity to see inside though as we attended the Shabbat service. Three levels of seating tall with mosaics, gold leaf decor and an ornate Bimah. Men and women sat seperately, on opposite side of the aisles so we were able to hand sign back and forth. Seemed to be 3 Rabbis with tall head coverings and a choir with a very large Organ. Sitting in front of some Americans, they told me this was Reform, so that made some sense but still European observation is very different. We did hear that the Budapest Jewish community is more than 80,000 strong.....quite different from Prague. The service was well attended and Reform short!
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