Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,

Once upon a time there was an Eastern Europe. Jews lived in many of its corners, most of them in utter poverty and uncertainty of existence. For instance, the family of my paternal grandfather lived in Satmar, from where he got to Budapest (through Nagykallo, where his first son was born). Being a man proficient in administration and speaker of languages, he obtained an office at the Chevra Kadisha in the newly formed Orthodox Congregation of Budapest. The rest of his children were born in Budapest. The building where he lived in Kiraly Street is not there any more.

For instance, my late mother in law was born in Krakow, her family is from Galicia. Four out of her six brothers were rabbinical students, all perished together with their parents. They probably used books printed in Vilna for praying and learning.

Once, when the more and more numerous communities overseas or in England needed rabbis, the immigrants received help mostly from the communities and schools of Eastern Europe.

This once-upon-a-time world was destroyed, men, buildings, books together.

Beside Yiddish, German used to be the language of communication. Today it is English or Ivrit, together with Yiddish in the most traditional circles.

The state of Israel was born.

Today the main strength of Jewry is found in Israel and in America. The direction of help has reversed: if we need help in Eastern Europe, they help us.

So many changes in our short lifetime!

Yet, what is unchanged in the course of the transformations? What connects the synagogue of old, or those praying in the Sanctuary of the historical state of Israel, or the medieval scholars, or the pre-expulsion communities of Spain, or even the pre-Holocaust Jews with us, Jews living today? As we all know, this is the Sefer Torah, around which crystallized the everyday Jewish life, the Yiddishkeit. Yes, everything, not only the Jewish scientific life, but the everyday customs, the Jewish values we live by every day.

There were great many changes in our lives in Budapest, too. We lived after the big tragedies. We have a community of interested people, which is built from below, which was formed by internal desire to facilitate building. We, mainly a group of young professionals, inaugurated the Pesti Shul Association for Jewish religious practice, within the Union of Orthodox Congregations but searching for a modern form of existence. We learn regularly, we have a library, we organize programs.

And now, the Pesti Shul Association has its own Torah Scroll!

May this Torah Scroll be a uniting bridge between a tragically destroyed world and our life today! May it serve our life, now, and the life of our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren! May it help our renewal and our self-respect!

As a representative of the prayer room of the Orthodox Congregation in Visegradi Street, and of the board of Pesti Shul functioning there, I would like to express our gratitude and thanks again to all who contributed with activity or donation that this young community could obtain this valuable and beautiful gift. I express my thanks especially to the democratic Lithuania, to the State of Israel and to numerous individuals.

Thank you for your attention.