When you enter the Szanto synagogue in the picturesque town of Szentendre, about half an hour north of Budapest, it is hard to imagine that religious services could be held in the 130-square-foot space. But Andras Szanto, the man behind the Szanto Memorial and Prayer House, guarantees that “a minyan can just fit in here.”

“It was my father’s dream to build a synagogue in honor of my late grandparents and the town’s Jews who were murdered during the Shoah,” Szanto said of the diminutive house of worship, which opened in 1998 and follows rites of Neolog Judaism, a Hungarian liberal sect. “Unfortunately, due to his untimely death, he was unable to complete the project.”

So Szanto stepped in, financing construction with his own money as well as through grants from the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities and private individuals. The single-room synagogue, complete with ark and pulpit, stands in the courtyard of the home that once belonged to Szanto’s grandparents, Laszlo and Rosalia Szanto, whom the Nazis deported in 1944. The couple did not survive. Since its opening, the site has become a top attraction in Szentendre, a Danube River town popular with tourists.

Inside the building, display cases house artifacts and documents pertaining to the local Jewish community. Included in the display is a frayed sheet of paper adorned with dozens of signatures and the words “We want to go home!” in Hungarian at the top.

Jews from Szentendre imprisoned during the Holocaust in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp managed to sign their names to this piece of paper and hide it from their guards. Sadly, only a few had their wish fulfilled. Out of 250-plus Jews deported in June 1944, 15 survived—and one of them brought the signed sheet back to the town after liberation. The names of those who died in the camp are commemorated on a large marble plaque in the courtyard adjacent to the synagogue.

In October 2024, two new plaques were unveiled: One for the victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel and a separate one for victim May Naim, who was murdered at the Nova music festival. Szanto lived in Israel from 1985 to 1988, when he became friends with Naim’s mother and grandfather.

The synagogue has around 60 members, including Szanto, who serves as its president. Another congregant is Veronika Gonda-Strasser, who joined after bringing foreign friends to see it on a sightseeing excursion. She has been an active member ever since. 

“What Andras has done is fantastic!” Gonda-Strasser said of his initiative to build a commemorative synagogue for his family and the other victims of the community. “I am not aware of anything similar.”

György Polgár