Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (EMIH)

Chabad-affiliated Jewish religious community in Hungary, founded in 2004 and recognised as an established church

Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (EMIH)
Logo
Type	Jewish religious community (Status Quo Ante tradition, Chabad-affiliated); established church under Hungarian law
Founded	24 May 2004
Founder(s)	Shlomo Köves and others, with the support of the Chabad mission in Hungary
Registration ID	00005/2012 (register of churches)
Headquarters	Budapest 1037 (district III, Óbuda)
Location	Budapest and four other Hungarian towns
Area served	Hungary
Services	Synagogues, schools and nurseries, Milton Friedman University, kosher supply, social care, antisemitism monitoring
Registration	Hungary
Key people	Shlomo Köves (executive rabbi); Sándor Sarkadi (president); László Győrfi (vice-president)
Website	https://emih.org
Remarks	A 2026 State Audit Office report on the Action and Protection Foundation, which EMIH founded, referred suspected budget fraud to the authorities

The Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (Egységes Magyarországi Izraelita Hitközség (Statusquo Ante), EMIH) is a Jewish religious community in Hungary. It was founded in 2004 with the support of the Chabad-Lubavitch mission in Budapest, and its executive rabbi is Shlomo Köves. Since 2012 it has been one of three Jewish bodies with the status of an established church (bevett egyház), the highest tier under Hungary's religion law. Since 2019 it has used the short name EMIH – Magyar Zsidó Szövetség ("EMIH – Hungarian Jewish Alliance").

EMIH has had a close relationship with the government of Viktor Orbán. It received "special status" in 2019, large state grants for culture, and a state development-bank loan towards its purchase of the university now called Milton Friedman University. In 2018 the government chose it to take over the unopened House of Fates Holocaust museum. In April 2026 the State Audit Office (Állami Számvevőszék, ÁSZ) reported serious irregularities at the Action and Protection Foundation (Tett és Védelem Alapítvány, TEV), an anti-antisemitism foundation set up by EMIH, and referred suspected budget fraud to the competent authority.

History

Background

EMIH's own history says its roots lie in the work of the Chabad emissaries Baruch and Batsheva Oberlander, who arrived in Budapest in 1989, and that it took its inspiration from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. An account on zsido.com, EMIH's news site, says Oberlander had asked to join Mazsihisz, the largest federation of Hungarian Jewish communities, in about 1996 and was refused. People in Chabad circles then concluded that a new Jewish church should be set up, and active planning began in about 2002–2003.

Founding (2004)

According to the same account, EMIH was founded on 24 May 2004 at a meeting of several hundred people in the Park Hotel beside Keleti station in Budapest. Köves was then 25. The founders chose to revive the Status Quo Ante tradition, the third current of Hungarian Judaism alongside the Orthodox and Neolog, which they saw as closest to Chabad's outlook. They chose the word "Egységes" ("Unified") because the Hungarian Chabad magazine was called Egység, and "izraelita" rather than "zsidó" ("Jewish") to avoid a clash of names with Mazsihisz. EMIH's own description says it was founded "inspired by – and midwifed by – Chabad Lubavitch" and that it regards the Status Quo Ante communities, which had a national federation from 1927 until 1950, as its spiritual predecessor.

Recognition as an established church

Hungary's 2011 religion law (Act C of 2011), in force from 1 January 2012, listed the churches recognised by Parliament in an annex. EMIH was one of the three Jewish bodies on the list, alongside Mazsihisz and the Autonomous Orthodox Jewish Community of Hungary (MAOIH). It is now item 5 in the annex of established churches. The government register of established churches gives EMIH the registration number 00005/2012 and records amendments to its statutes in 2012 and in December 2019. It names Köves Máté Slomó, executive rabbi, as its representative.

The US State Department describes a four-tier system, with established churches at the top. Groups in the two highest tiers can receive state subsidies on top of income-tax allocations, and established churches may give religious education classes in schools. EMIH says it is funded mainly by donations, members' contributions and targeted grants, and that as a registered church it receives the "1+1 per cent" income-tax allocations taxpayers can make.

Change of short name (2019–2021)

At an extraordinary general meeting in December 2019, EMIH decided to change its short name to EMIH – Magyar Zsidó Szövetség. Mazsihisz sued in January 2020, arguing that the name would cause the public to confuse the two bodies. The case is described under Civil cases below.

Institutions

In 2024 EMIH said it maintained 13 synagogues in five towns and ran three nurseries, two primary schools, a secondary school and a university. It also said it handed out 20,000 hot meals a day, ran a foster-parent network and care for the elderly, and employed 26 rabbis and rebbetzins. Among the synagogues, Köves's 2017 profile says the Óbuda Synagogue reopened in 2010 on his initiative. The Bét Menáchem bilingual nursery and school opened in district VII in 2011, and the Maimonides English–Hungarian bilingual Jewish secondary school opened in district III in 2017.

Milton Friedman University

In October 2017 EMIH bought ZSKF Fenntartó Kft., which runs the private Zsigmond Király University in Budapest. According to Világgazdaság, EMIH paid its own share of the price with money from foreign supporters, and the state-owned Hungarian Development Bank (MFB) lent a further 1.1 billion forints. The university says EMIH became its owner in October 2017 and that it was renamed Milton Friedman University in August 2018.

Relations with the state

Military chaplaincy (2012)

On 26 January 2012 the Ministry of Defence, EMIH and Mazsihisz signed an agreement on the Field Rabbinate of the military chaplaincy. Under it, Köves and Péter Joel Totha were appointed field rabbis in May 2012, to serve Jewish soldiers jointly.

Special status and grants (2019)

On 18 November 2019 the Deputy Prime Minister, Zsolt Semjén, signed a document giving EMIH the "special status" already held by several churches and by Mazsihisz. The status opens up kinds of state funding, including core funding and grants for educational work. Köves said EMIH was "pleased that the government has chosen to strengthen its relationship with EMIH".

In December 2019 EMIH received 1.8 billion forints through the state-owned EMET from a government fund that replaced the abolished culture tax relief. According to Index, the money was to renovate a building of nearly 4,000 m² owned by EMIH at Baross utca 61 in Budapest as a cultural complex with a theatre of more than 200 seats.

According to the State Audit Office, TEV received central government grants of 525 million forints in 2019 and 500 million forints a year from 2020. These grants are covered below.

House of Fates

The House of Fates (Sorsok Háza) is a Holocaust memorial museum building at the former Józsefváros railway station in Budapest. It was built by the state but never opened. On 7 September 2018 the minister heading the Prime Minister's Office, Gergely Gulyás, announced that the government would set up the museum with EMIH and with the public foundation directed by the historian Mária Schmidt, that EMIH would be its owner, and that the state would provide a budget of 2 billion forints. A week later JTA reported, citing EMIH, that Schmidt would not run the museum. It said the government had "transferred ownership to EMIH last week". The European Jewish Congress reported that Yad Vashem had come out publicly against the museum. Its Hungary expert, Robert Rozett, said the concept ignored Hungary's anti-Jewish laws of 1938, the deaths of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in forced labour, and the part played by Hungarian authorities in the deportations, and that Yad Vashem had dissociated itself from the project in 2014.

Köves says EMIH produced a new exhibition concept by about 2020, at a cost of 400–500 million forints, of which 200 million was state support. ATV reported that the government withdrew its decision on the opening in 2024. In September 2025 the government decided that the complex would pass to the MTK Budapest sports club, with 2 billion forints for remodelling. Köves called the idea "bizarre" at first hearing, and said EMIH had had nothing to do with the building, "neither in ownership nor even in possession". The 2018 government announcement, by contrast, had said that EMIH would be the museum's owner, and JTA reported that ownership had been transferred to it.

Action and Protection Foundation and the State Audit Office (2026)

EMIH founded the Action and Protection Foundation (TEV) on 15 November 2012 to monitor and counter antisemitism. Köves's 2014 profile says TEV was set up on his initiative.

Regulator findings

On 24 April 2026 the State Audit Office published report 25137 on TEV. The audit covered six central government grants, totalling 2,047.5 million forints, paid between 2020 and 2023. The ÁSZ found that:

• in 2021 EMIH, as founder, instructed TEV to make liquidity loans to EMIH and to Brüsszel Intézet Nonprofit Kft., a company owned by TEV and run by the chair of TEV's board of trustees. TEV paid these loans from grant money, against the grant terms. The short-term loans outstanding grew from 544.3 million forints at the end of 2021 to 774.4 million in 2022 and 1,021.9 million in 2023;
• TEV's grant accounts included 680 million forints of invoices from Brüsszel Intézet under a services contract dated 1 February 2022 to develop software that collects data from online and social media. The ÁSZ suspected that the contract had in fact been written on or after 14 May 2023 and backdated, so that TEV could show the grants had been spent on time;
• Brüsszel Intézet's costs for the software were 135.6 million forints, but it sold the software to TEV for 600 million forints, more than four times its actual cost. In the ÁSZ's view TEV's management thereby made a profit for its own company out of the grants;
• most of Brüsszel Intézet's invoices were settled not by payment but by setting them off against its loan debt to TEV;
• one study, billed at 120 million forints, was dated later than the accounts TEV had already submitted to claim it;
• TEV published its 2021–2023 accounts late and incompletely, did not appoint the auditor required by law, and did not set up the required supervisory body;
• TEV "handled the public money irresponsibly" and used the grants other than for their stated purposes.

Bethlen Gábor Fund Management, the grant-giver from 2021, withdrew the 500 million forint grant for 2021 and ordered it repaid. HVG reported that the chair of TEV's board of trustees, Dániel Bodnár, is also among EMIH's leaders.

Criminal referral and complaint

The ÁSZ said that, as the law requires, it had referred suspected offences, including budget fraud and use of central grants for other purposes, to the competent authority. It also said the grant-giver had filed a criminal complaint on 3 September 2025. These are a referral and a complaint, not charges.

Response

TEV said on 5 May 2026 that it had carried out real activities in line with its aims, and that the problems the ÁSZ found were "mainly administrative and accounting" shortcomings, not missing work or diverted funds. It said an internal review by EMIH's own audit department, ordered in October 2025, had reached the same conclusion, and that the accounting errors had since been corrected.

Relations with other Jewish bodies

Mazsihisz

JTA reported in 2019 that relations between EMIH and Mazsihisz had soured, partly over how Mazsihisz dealt with the government. Mazsihisz had led protests against the government of Viktor Orbán, including against its decision to put up a monument that Mazsihisz and others said whitewashed Hungarian complicity in the Holocaust. It had also said that the government's billboard campaign against George Soros encouraged antisemitism. EMIH, which JTA said had been less involved in campaigning, defended the government against some of these allegations.

MAOIH dispute

On 22 February 2023 a general meeting of the Autonomous Orthodox Jewish Community of Hungary (MAOIH) voted out its president, Róbert Deutsch, and its general secretary, and elected new leaders linked to EMIH. The US State Department reported that the new president, Gábor Keszler, was "of the EMIH". Deutsch said the election used deceitful tactics and was not recognised by rabbinical courts in Jerusalem and Antwerp, and some MAOIH members called it a hostile takeover by EMIH. The government recognised Keszler as president. Some members said MAOIH's synagogues, state payments, traditions and autonomy were at stake, while EMIH supporters told the Times of Israel that EMIH's financial help to MAOIH was vital. Szombat reported that MAOIH's new general secretary, Shmuel Oirechmann, is Köves's brother-in-law. Deutsch's legal challenge is described under Civil cases.

Civil cases

• Mazsihisz v EMIH (short name). In January 2020 Mazsihisz sued EMIH over the short name EMIH – Magyar Zsidó Szövetség, arguing that it breached the 2011 religion law and the Civil Code's rules on names. On 12 November 2020 the Budapest-Capital Regional Court (Fővárosi Törvényszék) dismissed the claim at first instance. According to an EMIH statement reported by Neokohn, the judgment became final under the court's order of 19 January 2021.
• Deutsch v Prime Minister's Office (MAOIH leadership). Deutsch sued the Prime Minister's Office over its decision to register the new MAOIH leadership. On 16 May 2024 the Budapest-Capital Regional Court dismissed his claim. On review, the Kúria (Hungary's supreme court) set that judgment aside in January 2025 and terminated the proceedings. It held that state bodies may not rule on a church's internal disputes, and that only a representative of the church as a whole could challenge the registration, which Deutsch, as a former president, could not. EMIH was not a party to this case.

Criticism and allegations

These are allegations and criticism reported in the press, not regulator or court findings.

• Index reported in December 2019 that, under the rules of the culture-tax replacement call, EMIH could not even have applied for the grant it received.
• Yad Vashem publicly opposed the House of Fates, which the government was transferring to EMIH, saying its concept ignored the role of the Hungarian state in the persecution and deportation of Hungarian Jews.
• The US State Department's 2023 religious freedom report describes EMIH as "Chabad-affiliated and government-aligned", and records MAOIH members' claims of a hostile takeover, which EMIH's supporters dispute.

See also

• Chabad Lubavitch of Hungary
• Shlomo Köves
• Chabad-Lubavitch movement

External links

• EMIH website (Hungarian)
• zsido.com, EMIH's news site (Hungarian)