MISSION STATEMENT

Throughout its 122-year history the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary has considered it its most fundamental mission and goal to keep alive and promote every area and aspect of Hungarian Jewish religious life; to be an intellectual-spiritual center that trains rabbis, highly qualified scholars and religious leaders who are able to answer the challenges and needs of the age and society they live in. The Seminary aims to train such leaders therefore, who are able to give shape to Hungarian Jewish intellectuality while providing answers to problems of quotidian and universal import taking tradition into account.

The establishment of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary, the only one in Middle and Eastern Europe to this day, was first proposed by David Friedhausen, a scholar of Bavarian descent in 1806, then Lipót Lőw made the proposal again at a time when a number of similar institutions were founded throughout Europe. After an extended period of planning the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary opened its doors on October 4^th, 1877, in response to a ministerial decree passed earlier that year. The Seminary’s goal then was to insure preparation for Jewish studies at the secondary school level and, based on this preparation, rabbinical education at the higher faculty of theology. 320 rabbis have taken degrees at the Seminary to date.

The increasingly right-wing politics of Hungarian internal and foreign policy during the years preceding the second world war, rising anti-Semitism, the so-called Jew-laws, deportations, the Holocaust and the ravages of war caused immense suffering and destruction, making communal life (including Jewish education) all but impossible for the small Jewish community left after the war. Following nationalization only the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary, one boys’ and one girls’ school in Budapest remained of the nearly forty Jewish educational institutions which had been attended by approximately 13 thousand students.

The main objective of our institution is to train highly qualified Jewish leaders with a strong sense of commitment. The emphasis in our educational philosophy is on quality, not quantity.

The political changes of the years 1989-90 brought an advantageous turn in the life of Hungarian Jews. Many realized they can now openly acknowledge their religious heritage, and enrolled their children in old and new schools of the Jewish community. The training profile of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Hungary was also expanded. Three specializations (Rabbinical Training, Liturgical History, Cantor Training) are offered in 1999 at the institution’s University faculty and two (Teacher training in Judaism, Jewish Community and Social Work) at the Paedagogium, a college-level faculty. We also offer a postgraduate specialization: the Jewish Cultural History Specialization.

Specialization in Rabbinical Training

At the founding of the Seminary the aim of rabbinical training was training rabbis who were modern in the classical sense, furthering the development of their communities as emancipated members of Hungarian society and religious and spiritual leaders of the Jewish community, and with that, the reestablishment of social harmony and the development of the economic and cultural life of the adoptive country.

After the 1989-90 political changes rabbis again acquired new tasks. They had to find the path to a Jewish community trying to find itself among changed social conditions and immense new opportunities.

Nowadays, the goal of rabbinical training is therefore the training of rabbis for today’s Hungary who can be Jewish with the wholeness of respect for tradition and at the same time wholeheartedly identify with the most noble and classic values of Hungarian culture.

Specialization in Cantor Training

We restarted – after lengthy preparations – the specializations in Cantor Training and Lecturer-Training in Liturgical History because after the Holocaust very few members of the Jewish community remained alive with training in both religion and culture, and even of these few many have emigrated. The pursuers of this profession have died out and no new ones have been trained. More and more new communities, religious and cultural formations come into existence each year, each in need of a cantor.

The aim of cantor training is to train such brothers in faith, with a high level of commitment to Judaism, who will lead religious services in both the capital and the country. What is more, they will be able to conduct services in a way that fits into the unique tradition of Hungarian Jewish spirituality, is its heir and depository.

Specialization in Liturgical History

The specialization in Lecturer-Training in Liturgical History can also be explained by historical reasons. The countryside in Hungary has been depopulated – from a Jewish standpoint. Jewish population outside Budapest is still proportionally high. However, these communities do not have rabbis, teachers, cantors.
This specialization aims to train people who are able to participate in local integration efforts, in the organization of communities, in creating contacts between religious groups and in neutralizing conflicts with a religious and intellectual background. The central goal of the specialization in liturgical history is to train men and women knowledgeable in Jewish religious culture, to work primarily in rural religious communities.

The specialization in Jewish Cultural History is a specialization organized on religious principles but operating with a secular attitude. It is a specialization open to everyone. Degree holders may apply to this tuition-based specialization to study religious philosophy, Jewish literature and the history of Jewish art. The specialization’s objective is to show how Jewish culture has influenced other cultures and how other cultures in turn have influenced Jewish culture. Training in the specialization will be conducted with the participation of permanent and guest professors: historians, art historians, ethnographers, psychologists, writers, aesthetes – the departments’s teaching collective will be made up of the great of both Hungarian and international academic life.

RESEARCH

One of the three most important area of the University’s activity is and was research even before the second world war. A number of publications attests to the research activity of preceding years.

The volumes in the Hungarian Jewish Archives are a conglomerate without which research into Hungarian Jewish life would be unimaginable. The sixteen volumes of source material rest on the foundation of many decades of archival work. The volumes were published continuously, collecting the archival material of several centuries.

The connections between Hungarian Jewish folklore and the Bible. The most significant work bears the title of Folklore and Topic History, which is to this day a fundamental work of research on Judaism. Another subject of research in the Scheiber era was the connection of Hungarian literature and Jewish folklore, with the objective of bringing to light how Hungarian prose writers and poets (from János Arany to György Moldova) depict the milennia-old folklore of the Jewish people. After the death of Sándor Scheiber in 1985, chief rabbi József Schweitzer took over the rectorship of the Seminary. Rabbi Schweitzer wished to carry on the work of Professor Scheiber. Among the publications dating from this period an especially significant one is the the book published in celebration of the 70^th birthday of rabbi Schweitzer, the essays in which book are worthy representatives of the Jewish research of these years.

THE CONNECTION OF RESEARCH AND TEACHING

A close relation between research and teaching is created during teaching, as is clear from the volumes describing the departments and the degree specializations. Interdisciplinary research constitutes an integral part of the training process – both in the case of religious studies and other subjects (e.g. archeology, art history, liturgical history, music history) our professors include the results of their research in their lecture curricula. This creates – among other things – the unique nature of the institution. All our professors – often leading Hungarian intellectuals – are involved in research projects dealing with Judaism

Involving Students in Research

Students enrolled in any degree specialization may participate in research work. Two last-year students of the rabbinical specialization are collecting, under the supervision of an advising professor, the authoritative precedents handed down at pre-World War II centers of authority; they are organizing and processing these using computers and posting them on the Internet. Students enrolled in the Liturgical History specialization are collecting the still living Jewish folk music of rural areas and utilizing these during their work.

The Evaluation of Our Educational Work

The evaluation of our work in education is conducted on several levels in accordance with our principles of quality control.
The first level is the departmental committee meeting, where the evaluation of the work of teachers and students is a regularly discussed topic. These meetings regularly evaluate the work of new teachers while the work of “old teachers” is evaluated once a year.
The second level is the Rector’s Council, which visits the classes of new colleagues at the end of each semester.
The direct feedback of the students and the reports and observations given at the student government’s organized discussions and committee meetings constitute the third level.

Publishing Activity

The greatest deficiency of the past decade manifested itself in the area of textbooks, that is, there were no such publications at the Seminary’s disposal. The leadership's first task was to create a teaching faculty of highly qualified teachers and scholars who, in addition to the realization and development of high-quality educational work, is able to write the supplementary materials and textbooks required by their classes.
The publication of textbooks (by the Institution and for distribution outside the Institution) which will serve as textbooks at the faculties of Teacher Training and Rabbinical Studies and as reference books outside them, and are “consumable” even by a larger, general public.
The publication of independent scholarly works, independent in part even from educational work;
The manufacture of educational audio and video tapes; the world’s first teaching cassette collecting Jewish neologian traditions, edited by dr. Béla Kerekes was published in this manner.
Other publications aiding university and secondary education: the Scriptures and theories of art, motifs from the Scriptures in service of politics, The Mosaic of Heroes in the Tanach.

The admission examination consists of two parts:
a/ Interview with the examination committee,
b/ Psychological attitude test.

Applicants who know Hebrew and the practice of Jewish religious life well have an advantage. Their commitment can be ascertained during both the attitude test and the interview.

Student performance during the training

We can only draw tentative conclusions about students’ abilities, diligence and the efficacy of our teachers’ educating-training efforts from the high grade point averages generally achieved in all of the specializations.
In individual specializations the grade point averages of students usually fall around the “good” (4) range. The Regulations of Study and Examinations play a role in this, as it is possible to repeat failed exams in the same exam period with only the better grade being recorded and counted in the grade point average.
The leading committees of the university are generally satisfied with the extracurricular activities of the students (organizing religious holidays, caring for the Jewish cultural heritage, visiting the elderly in homes, participation in Holy Scriptures competitions, organizing nightly cultural specializations in the synagogues’ districts or in homes for the elderly) – which means a high level of commitment to their chosen professions.

Performance of finishing students

In 1997-98 the final degree examination grades of finishing students reflect the tendencies described above. Their final grades averaged 4.6.
It can be ascertained that while comprehensive exam grades were lower, performance in other components of the degree examination was significantly better. The senior theses were generally good, in the time frame examined no grade lower than a 4 was awarded a senior thesis.
In accordance with our principles of quality control we expect and receive feedback about our finishing students from Hungary’s Jewish communities, the schools and nursery schools. In our experience thus far this feedback has been positive. Our students perform well in Jewish schools and continue their studies successfully at various other universities and colleges.