Slomó Köves (born Máté Köves; 18 May 1979) is óKöa leading Orthodox rabbi and chief rabbi of EMIH () an affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch in Hungary which is led by rabbi Báruch Oberlander.
Köves also serves as the chief Rabbi of the Hungarian Armed Forces
Early life
Shlomo Köves was born in Budapest into a secular Jewish family. On his mother's side were several famous Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Shlomo Silberstein of Bonyhád and Rabbi Yeshaya Silberstein of Vác. Köves’ paternal grandmother, Rózsa Köves, was a well-known journalist at Magyar Nemzet. While growing up in communist Hungary, Köves did not receive a Jewish education until the age of 13, when he decided to study abroad. He spent nearly 10 years pursuing rabbinical studies at various yeshivot. Köves graduated from the Yeshiva High School (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), the Institut Superieur D’études Rabbiniques et Talmudiques and the Central Lubavitch Yeshivot (New York). He received a Ph.D. from the University of Debrecen, in history, in 2007.
Köves also became a certified sofer (Jewish scribe) and mohel (to perform Jewish circumcision).
After his return to Hungary in 2002, he attended the University of Debrecen, receiving his Ph.D. in the History of 19th Century Hungarian Jewry. His thesis, Zsidó szakadás (“Jewish Schism”), was published as a book by the Noran publishing house in 2009. His original thesis dealt with the rabbinical disputes of Hamburg (1818-1821) and Nagymihály (1865) and how these impacted Jews living in Hungary and Europe.
Return to Hungary and Ordination
In 2001, Köves began teaching at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, at the Faculty of Hebrew Law; he also taught the Talmud at the Neolog Rabbinical Institute.
On January 7, 2003, Köves became the first Orthodox rabbi to be ordained in Hungary since the Holocaust. Mordechai Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel; Yitzchak Yehuda Yaroslavsky, leader of the Israeli Chabad Rabbi Council; and Báruch Oberlander, head rabbi of the Chabad-Lubavich movement in Hungary, oversaw the ceremony. The event was widely covered in the media because of its historical significance; Ferenc Madl, President of Hungary at the time, also attended the event.
Activity
Rabbi Köves has spearheaded Jewish education in Hungary, founding the Maimonides High School, Open University for Judaic Studies and the Ashkenazium, the Jewish Studies department at the Milton Friedman University. He also started the first Hungarian-language Daf Yomi Talmud class, which can be followed daily online.
Köves has been a leading figure in the fight against antisemitism and remembering the Holocaust. In 2009, Köves invited Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel to visit Budapest on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Hungary. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, had not been back to the country on an official visit since being deported in 1944. The visit was historic, as Wiesel had said he would never make the trip.
The preservation of Jewish Heritage has been an important goal for both Köves and EMIH. Their work has been seen via the opening/reopening of synagogues and historic Jewish sites throughout Hungary. These include the opening of Keren Or synagogue in 2005; the nearly 200-year-old Grand Synagogue in Óbuda in 2010, unused since the Holocaust; and the Budavár Synagogue in Budapest's Castle District in 2018, built in the 14th century and unused since an 1686 pogrom. New synagogues/community centers were also opened in 2019 in Szentendre and Újlipótváros (ZSILIP). This last, situated on the bank of the Danube River in Budapest, is a symbolic location given that thousands of Jews were shot into the Danube in 1944 and 1945. The year of the opening marked the 30th anniversary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Hungary, and two Torah scrolls were ceremoniously completed. After 80 years, Újbuda's synagogue will also officially reopen sometime in 2021.
On May 2, 2012 he was appointed by the Hungarian Minister of Defense at the time, Csaba Hende, as Chief Rabbi of the Hungarian Forces. Csaba Hende said he has high hopes for cooperation. "During my work over the past two years, I have met a very committed, noble-minded patriot in the person of Shlomo Koves," said the minister.
In 2015, the rabbi house in Mád was completed. The village of Mád is the starting point for the 150-kilometer “Trail of the Wonder-Working Rabbis” pilgrimage, which takes visitors through 10 towns, rich in Jewish history, in Hungary's Tokaj-Hegyalja region. Köves has been active in reigniting Jewish life in this area, where Jewish communities were left decimated after the Holocaust.