Löw Lipót and Löw Immánuel parks and memorials inaugurated in Szeged

The Löw Lipót and Löw Immánuel parks and the Löw memorials were inaugurated yesterday, September 5, in Szeged.

The Municipality of Szeged and the Jewish Community of Szeged inaugurated the Löw Lipót and Löw Immánuel memorials, and the parks bearing the name of the two Chief Rabbis on Thursday at the end of Attila Street, near Mars Square.

The inauguration ceremony was addressed by József Binszki, deputy mayor of Szeged, and Andor Grósz, president of MAZSIHISZ, while Máté Hidvégi, Professor Emeritus at the Budapest University of Jewish Studies, shared his thoughts on the Löw family.

"We received a request from the Jewish Community of Szeged to commemorate these two distinguished persons by naming a public space, and the opportunity arose to commemorate these two renowned men in our public spaces here, in the heart of the city center, in this two-in-one area, which is divided by the road, but is the perfect place to commemorate these two men," explained Binszki.

The deputy mayor also said that the project would be implemented in two phases, with the designer and the contractor. In the first phase, the sacral area has been completed. The second phase will include the recreation park, a community space with benches, walkways, and much more shade. Fifteen more trees will be planted in the autumn. A total of 1200 new shrubs have been planted in the square. The first phase costs around 68 million forints, and the second phase will cost close to that. The second phase will keep the number of parking spaces that have been previously provided. In addition, a kitchen garden will be created in one of the access points to the common area, while the rest will be a recreation area.

Andor Grósz, president of MAZSIHISZ, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, in his opening speech, pointed out that the work and oeuvre of Lipót Löw and Immánuel Löw reaches far beyond the borders of the city and has greatly influenced and even defined the life of the Hungarian neo-Jewish community.

"Neology is a special Hungarian branch of the Jewish innovation movement. Its historical development is linked to the reformist movement born in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Later, however, it returned to the more traditional, conservative forms of Judaism. Today it is virtually identical to modern Orthodox religious practice", he explained.

At the inauguration ceremony, opera singer Tamás Altorjay performed Zacharias' prayer from Verdi's opera Nabucco and László Király's song Message from Jerusalem from the song cycle Hungarian Holocaust 1944. Sarolta Szűcs performed the Avinu Malkeinu prayer.

Photos: Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify