Tokaj Jewish Heritage & Wine Tour

The Tokaj region is legendary in the world of wine for its sweet wines, intricate cellars, and volcanic vineyards. And the Tokaj terroir also includes the history of its once-substantial Jewish community. Until the Holocaust, Jews made up a significant amount of the region’s population. They played a vital role in the production, sale, and transport of wine from Tokaj. Tokaj’s Jewish story began in the mid-1700s when Polish Jews began to settle in the region. In the early-19th century, Jews from Galicia (an area along today’s Polish/Ukrainian border) arrived. Many of them were followers of the Hasidic movement and by the beginning of the 20th century, Tokaj had arguably become the most important center of Hasidism in Europe west of the Ukraine. The Jews of the region contributed enormously to the fact that Tokaj wine remained widely recognized internationally for centuries. Jews or non-Jews, everyone living in the region loved the wine. During the Holocaust the Jews of northeastern Hungary fared worse than those in Budapest and they never returned to the area to live. There are many Jewish historic sites—such as synagogues, cemeteries where wonder rabbis are buried, rabbi’s houses, and old stately Jewish homes—and the region is a Hasidic pilgrimage destination. Two synagogues have been gorgeously restored, and several wineries are located inside of the old homes of Jewish wine merchants.