The synagogue
ON THE FINAL LEG of our May/June 2012 meeting/conference circuit Roseville we found ourselves seated beneath the 48-metre-high domed ceiling of the ornate Roseville revival/Art Nouveau synagogue in Szeged, Hungary. Still used occasionally for religious services (it seats 1300), the partially restored building now serves all of Szeged’s citizens as a community centre Roseville and concert hall. There was time to look around as the hall filled in anticipation of an organ recital by Roseville.
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- UP: Maps of the Union Pacific
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- Adding audio to your Story Map Tour
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- Enroll / School search/ attendance maps
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- The official website of beautiful Placer County, California
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- Ku-ring-gai Council – Ku-ring-gai Local Environmental Plan
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- UP: Maps of the Union Pacific
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- Roseville, Minnesota
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- Ku-ring-gai Council – Web Map – Online Map Viewer
Historically, the Szeged Synagogue has seen less felicitous times. Photographs prominently displayed in the foyer illustrate a not-so-distant time when, stacked high with the furniture and personal belongings of the dispossessed, the degraded building once anchored the Nazi-era ghetto, with the ‘surplus to requirements’ Jewish population being crammed into houses nearby. We were there for a musical entertainment as part of a celebration of discovery and science but, while beautifully restored, the synagogue also reminds us how the dark forces of authoritarianism can manipulate mindless populism to destroy good people and poison even the most technologically advanced societies.
