Annual festival celebrates Jewish food

Cholent, the traditional Jewish stew, has been celebrated in Budapest in a festival that aims to bring Jewish food, music and traditions to the Hungarian capital.

The annual ‘Cholent Festival’, now in its sixth year, is part of a wider rejuvenation of Jewish life in the country, and took place in an outdoor theatre two weeks ago, after last year’s event was cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Organised by the Chabad Lubavitch organisation Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities, it celebrated the Jewish classic, a slow-cooked meat stew that simmers overnight, traditionally served for Shabbat lunch. It contains whole eggs in their shell, meat, beans, potatoes, barley and spices. With 6,000 portions of kosher cholent being sold, guests could choose from one of several varieties, including vegan, Hungarian, Israeli and Tunisian.

There were performances by Chasidic American rapper Nissim Black and English singer-songwriter Alex Clare.

In the evening, hundreds accompanied a newly-completed Torah scroll to the nearby Bocskai Street Synagogue, which was officially inaugurated. Locals said it had been 85 years since so many attended a Jewish event in Budapest.

The traditional slow-cooked stew