Pilgrimage and State Security: Visiting the Tombs of the Tzadikim of Hungary during the Years of Socialism - Before 1989

Visits to the graves of the (Hasidic) Rebbes of Bodrogkeresztur, Nagykálló, Olaszliszka, Sátoraljaújhely and other (Hasidic) places of worship are unique manifestations of Jewish popular religiosity in Hungary; these visits are mainly made on the anniversaries of deaths (`Yahrzeit).

The literature does not pay much attention to the fact that these customs were still alive during the decades of Socialism, and even after 1957, although to a limited extent, foreigners also took part in these pilgrimages.

The pilgrims were monitored by the State-security, for example, the number plates of cars arriving in Bodrogkeresztúr were recorded and undercover agents tried to decode the public mood. However, this religious custom was still present, albeit in a restricted environment, which is why it survived the period of regime change, only to be revived by religious tourism, which had already been desired.

The increase in the intensity of state security surveillance was not related to religiosity, but to the anti-Zionist state policy that emerged in Eastern Europe after the Six-Day-War, which saw all Jewish organisations as Zionism.

The presentation will also give an account of the Rabbis behind the custom, the religious significance of the visit and its role in local society. At the same time, it will also give an account of how the memory of the Hasidic ’wonder rabbis was passed on (according to the sources) during the decades of the Hungarian Socialist Kádár regime, and of how (from the point of view of the Socialist regime) the pilgrimage (peregrinatio religiosa) and participation in it became an element of the power-relationship system and what it meant for the church politics of the period.