January 08, 2003

Hungary's first inauguration of Orthodox rabbi
since the Holocaust

Reviving rich prewar Jewish traditions, Israel's chief rabbi yesterday helped inaugurate the first Orthodox rabbi in Hungary since the Holocaust. Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu and Russia's Chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar, helped Budapest Orthodox Rabbi Boruch Oberlander induct Shlomo Koves, 23, at the tiny Chabad synagogue in the capital's former ghetto area. "The Torah has returned from Israel with this young rabbi," Eliahu said in his speech of blessing. Born in Budapest, Koves graduated from high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before studying to be a rabbi in Paris, New York and Israel.

Shalom and Mazeltov, Rabbi Koves!
This is actually good news for the whole world, that there is one more place on the globe where men, women and children can worship God as they see choose in a country where they weren't free to do so for many years!
And thanks, Eastern Europe, for all the strides towards Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness that you've been making in only 10 short years!