November 12, 2025
Google Earth 2018
Google Earth 2025
Quick Update from Budapest
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As we head into the US holiday of Thanksgiving, it is time for us to take stock of what we have achieved in this massive project and express our gratefulness for where we have come to. We also think forward to what still lies before us and while significant, an end to Phase I is in sight within 3 years.
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To that end, with a recent update to Google’s aerial images, we can appreciate the incredible progress we have made since starting our work in October 2018. The two pictures above show at first forest and then lo and behold, a cemetery beneath it. The picture does not show our recently completed 38C with 3965 burials and the fixed 27A and 27B.
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This link to our map - https://www.budapestjewishcemetery.com/map-of-the-cemetery - gives a different visual of what has been completed. On the second page we list the size of each section and the number of burials contained within. We have now completed 41 sections reopening access to an area of about 333,000 sq meters (82 acres) containing almost 107,000 graves! We believe there is no Jewish cemetery project in the world that has achieved this scale in area and burials. Yet, it is only 66% (2/3) of our goal for Phase I, the plan to deforest and stop the rot. The next phase focuses on not just maintenance but education for youth and dealing with many broken tombstones where there are no longer descendants to look after them.
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Since our last update in July, we have completed two very large neighboring sections, 38B and 38C. A special thank you to the Kadas family for sponsoring these two sections. The combined area is 29,150 sq meters (7.2 acres) with 8288 burials. From a work perspective, we lost most of October due to the Jewish holidays and their eves being midweek. As we head into the end of the year, we are working on 3 smaller sections of 35, 36 and 37. While the three combined add up to a bit more than one of the large ones like 38B, they are very densely overgrown and present a new challenge for our work team. Even the roads between them are either non-existent or heavily overgrown and need to be reclaimed from nature. If the truck and wood chipper cannot move along the side of the section, the labor involved in bringing out wood and waste is significantly increased.
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TWO CALLS TO ACTION
1. As we come to the end of the year, please consider sponsoring one of these sections for 2026 in honor or memory of a family member or friend. Other donors have found it a great way to bring a broader family together in a project of shared heritage. A benefit of this has been to reunite cousins who had lost contact over the years.
2. Please forward this email to at least one friend who may not be on our list but whose heritage would make them interested in our work.
Section HUF mil Cost US
9 3.2 $9,708
10 2.9 $8,714
11 1.6 $4,848
13 3.8 $11,515
17B 2.5 $7,576
17E 2.8 $8,485
19 1.7 $5,233
32 9.3 $28,182
34 5.2 $15,758
35 2.9 $8,788 Taken
36 2.8 $8,485
37 2.9 $8,788
38C 7.2 $21,818 Taken
38D 7.5 $22,727
40 9.5 $28,788
41 7.3 $22,121
42 8.1 $24,606
43 7.9 $24,044
Total $270,183
As always, please see below for pictures
Wishing all of our readers in the US a happy Thanksgiving with warm appreciation for your support to date,
Michael and Marc
38B before our work
This section contains 4323 burials mostly from 1933 - 1945 but with many from the 1960s and even some from later. These sections along the cemetery’s back fence were typically for those of lesser means and many of the tombstones are of the more simple kind. The heavily overgrown nature of these sections combined with the lesser quality of materials have taken its toll on the graves in both this section and 38C
38B after
An enormous section where standing at the beginning of the road along its side, one can barely make out the end. This picture is from late July. The section is wide open and clear but some of the wood still needs to be removed. In the second picture, the back fence of the cemetery is visible, a full kilometer (2/3 mile) from the front entrance
38C before
The neighboring section to 38B, it also runs along the back of the cemetery. There are 3965 burials mostly from 1936 - 1946 but with many from the 1970s and 1980s as well. Here is a picture from the right side of the section before we started. The second one shows how it presented from the middle of the section standing in front of the first row
38C After
A picture from the same right hand corner after the work was completed in October. The final touches involve cleaning the road of debris, as can be seen above. The second picture show the back of the section with piles of wood that need to be removed
