Culture

Golem Center

About this project

Golem Theater's goal was to create a permanent venue from the very beginning. Over the years, this desire has grown to establish a center for Jewish performing arts including a home for the theatre and its own productions. In the first phase, in the 7th district of Budapest, a theater with a capacity of 99 people, a cafe-community space, an actor's lounge, dressing rooms, and service areas was completed. Theater performances, concerts, dance productions, and gastronomical events are currently staged. Our target audience is theater enthusiasts, students, and Jews who would like to experience their own Judaism through culture too.

Why is it important?

Golem Theater considers the many thousands of years of Jewish tradition and culture as its basis. However, at the same time, it is also aware of delivering its cultural mission in Budapest, Hungary, Europe. Operating a Jewish theater in Central Europe is a huge responsibility and a great challenge. Golem cannot turn a blind eye to the shortcomings and mistakes of the Jewish community, its leaders, and its members – it is critical and self-critical. The fact that Budapest has the largest Jewish community in Central Eastern Europe does not secure the survival of a Jewish theater if it cannot deliver high-quality performances that Hungarian theater enthusiasts are used to and expect. Unlike community theaters, Golem wishes to speak to the entire Hungarian theater-going public. Therefore, it presents plays written in Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French, or any other foreign language in Hungarian.

Why is it special?

There has never been a Jewish theater in Hungary. In other countries, where there is a Jewish theater, it is usually a community theater where members of the Jewish community perform to the Jewish community. In contrast, Golem is a grassroots initiative that has been kept alive by the members of the community. Its repertoire is free, contemporary, and provocative.