Local services
As Dehir reported 5 years earlier, the president of the Jewish Community of Debrecen, Tamás Horovitz, approached the municipality with a request to use the 786 square meter property located at 31 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street, next to their headquarters, free of charge.
At the time, the building was intended to be used as a day-care facility for the elderly, thus expanding their social services.
It seems that a similar idea could be realised in 2024, more precisely, the United Hungarian Jewish Community would use it. The Debrecen Jewish Community would do the same with the 998 square meter property located at number 33. The religious communities are requesting this in order to facilitate the fulfillment of their religious duties as well as the cultural or social public tasks they perform.
It emerged from the presentations of the Assembly that the property at 31 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street is currently vacant. There are 4 flats in the building at the front of the property at number 33, 2 of which are in the process of being vacated.
“The United Hungarian Jewish Community, sensing the increased community activity and the related demands, has made serious efforts in recent years to ensure that the kosher Jewish infrastructure in Debrecen can develop in line with the importance of the city,” the proposal states.
In order to fulfill this commitment, the Community would like to establish a new religious-cultural community space, a rabbi’s house, on the property at 31 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street, which could provide a venue for many religious activities that were not possible in the city until now.
In addition to ensuring the uninterrupted sacred life, this centre would also provide a ritual bath, a mikveh, which has not been available in Debrecen for a long time, and which is one of the most basic conditions of religious Jewish life, the basis of purity of family life. The Community is committed to renovating the property until 2026.
The Debrecen Jewish Community intends to build a church-run nursing home at 33 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street in 2025, instead of the originally planned location at 31 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street. The properties are not necessary for the performance of municipal public duties.
The property at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street 31 has a legal registration of “monumental environment”. Given that the property directly borders a protected monument, this is considered a fact related to the property, but is not an obstacle to the transfer of the property.
“All changes in the area of the monumental environment must be subordinated to the appearance and value of the protected value in the settlement or landscape,” the proposal stated.
The property at 33 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street is under partial local individual protection of the streetscape, therefore the building facing the street must be retained during the planned utilisation.
Source and photo credit:dehir.hu
