Explore the hidden Jewish treasures of Central Europe
If you wish to travel to Hungary or other Central European countries, the JEWISH VISITORS’ SERVICE proudly offers its reliability, expertise and flexibilty.We are a Budapest-based travel agency specializing in Jewish tours, offering a wide range of programmes and services for both individuals and groups of any size.
Having gathered a fifiteen-year long experience in the tourist business, we have worked out a broad selection of tours to make sure that our clients\' every need should be met with professionalism.
We guarantee that the Jewish Visitors\' Service will help you to make your travel enjoyable and memorable in Hungary or Central Europe.
We provide the following services:
Budapest
This beautiful city is considered the most sophisticated of Central European capitals. Here you will find the third largest community of approximately 100,000 Jews in Europe. Jewish history dates back to Roman times, and Jews have always played an outstanding role in the city\'s economic, political and cultural life. Today, Budapest has many fine synagogues, kosher restaurants and Jewish schools. The unique Dohany Street Synagogue, the most impressive and biggest in Europe, stands next to the moving Holocaust Memorial, dedicated to over 600,000 Jews who perished during the Nazi reign of terror. The Jewish Museum has a wealth of artifacts and documents relating to Jewish history in Hungary.
Budapest is definitely one more pearl strung on the Danube necklace, a vibrant, cosmopolitan metropolis with rich Jewish history.
The half-day tour includes a visit to the old Jewish Quarter in the heart of Pest, featuring the impressive Dohany Street Synagogue (Europe\'s biggest), the Jewish Museum with its wealth of Judaica treasures, the unique Holocaust Memorial, the newly re-opened Rumbach Street Synagogue, the memorial statue dedicated to Carl Lutz (the Swiss Consul who saved thousand of Jews) and the beautifully restored Kazinczy Street Orthodox Synagogue.
The full-day tour includes the above programme of the half-day tour with an extension of visiting the recently opened \"Glass-house\". This is a remarkable place that, on the one hand, served as a shelter and hiding place for about 3,000 Jews saved by Carl Lutz, the Consul of Switzerland in late 1944 and, one the other hand, was also the center of the underground Zionist organization in Hungary.
Prague
Hardly any other city has been adorned with words of praise to the extent Prague has; it has often been called golden and incomparable. Resting on the sloping banks of the Vltava River, the main artery of Bohemian waterways, Pragues cobblestone streets are connected by arching and ancient stone bridges contrasting with the cosmopolitan atmosphere of modern Prague. Jewish community life in Prague has been continuous since the Middle Ages. The oldest synagogue of the city, the Alteneuschul, built during the last quarter of the 13th century, bears witness of the medieval Jewish community. Despite several periods of expulsion, an autonomous intellectual life was flourishing in the Jewish Quarter in the Golden Age (between the 16th and 18th century) of Prague\'s Jewry. Some of the legendary Jewish personalities who lived in Prague are Rabbi Loew (the Maharal) and Rabbi Avigdor Kara, a member of Prague\'s Beth Din, among other historians, scientists and philosophers. Today, the Jewish quarter of the city is completely restored and is indeed a fascinating discovery.
Vienna
Vienna is remarkable. Its eminent role in European history, architecture, art and music combine to embody the phrase \"Old World Charm\". The city, once home to the Hapsburg Empire, claims Mozart, Schubert, Bruckner and Freud, whose lives and accomplishments are documented and celebrated in Vienna. In European Jewish history, too, the Jewry of the city played an immeasurable role, especially in the cultural life in 19th century. In the Middle Ages, from the 10th century on, a fluctuating Jewish presence in Austria is to be presumed. The first document mentioning Jews in Vienna dates back to the late 12th century. After turbulent centuries of expulsions and pogroms, the Patent of Tolerance (1782) by Emperor Joseph II marked the starting point of a development that brought about the equality of Jews. In modern times, too, the founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl developed his ideas in and initiated his campaigns, from Vienna. Besides him, the activity of many outstanding Jewish personalities (e.g. composer Karl Goldmark, writer Arthur Schnitzler, psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, etc.) bears witness of the Viennese Jews to Austrian intellectual and scientific development. Discover the abundant wealth of Jewish history of a bustling, elegant metropolis in the heart of Europe.
Please contact us if you need an experienced, helpful travel expert for Central and Eastern Europe.