Tokaj?s mayor János Májer inaugurated the renovated structure on Wednesday as part of the programme of the Zemplén Festival, an arts festival in Tokaj and the surrounding villages.
Tokaj won a grant from the European Union sufficient to cover 90 percent of the project?s costs. The local council paid for the rest.
The synagogue will not be used for worship, but for cultural events and conferences, Májer said. The building can seat 250 on its ground floor and galleries, making it ideal for concerts and other cultural events, and a further 250 in the upper floor, which could be used for conferences.
As a result of the renovation, the synagogue has been made fully accessible to people with physical disabilities.
Tokaj?s local council has also successfully applied for a grant to build a new theatre next the synagogue. The green field investment will cost HUF 953 million, of which 65 percent will come from EU regional development funding. Central budget funding will also cover a part of the costs, with the local council paying for the remainder. Construction on the new theatre is expected to start in the spring of 2007 and be completed by the summer of the following year.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
