“Have I Asked the Name of that Fish?”: Synagogue Humor in Contemporary Hungary

Authors

Richard Papp, Eötvös Loránd UniversityFollow

Abstract

Jews who remained in Hungary after the Shoah almost completely abandoned their religious life because of the communist regime’s politics of assimilation. After the regime change in 1989, synagogue attendance rose and a renewed interest in ethnic-religious traditions was evident among Hungarian Jews. However, not knowing the ethnic traditions, they were unable to follow the religious commandments. Ethnographic observation in a synagogue in Budapest shows that ensuing communal tensions were eased by humor. Humor also became a marker of identity in the synagogue, by which even those who did not fully follow religious norms identified themselves as “imperfect but religious Jews.”

Recommended Citation

Papp, Richard (2024) "“Have I Asked the Name of that Fish?”: Synagogue Humor in Contemporary Hungary," Jewish Folklore and Ethnology: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/jewishfolklore/vol3/iss1/3