The Hungarian village of Bodrogkeresztur is a pilgrimage site for thousands of Hassidic Jews every year, for there lived the venerated Rabbi Yeshayah Steiner, from whom the well-known Kerestir Hassidic dynasty originated.
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As many as 20,000 pilgrims used to arrive at the small northern village annually, that is, until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
About a thousand Jews from around the world traveled to the site on Thursday, which raised alarm among local residents, as Hungary combats its third infection wave.
Rabbi Moshe Friedlander, who owns a house in the village and organizes part of the pilgrimage, said the pilgrims were either vaccinated or had tested negative for COVID.
Nevertheless locals said they were nervous.
"We had too many deaths as it is," Ildiko Cserhalmi, a local shopkeeper, said. "They [the pilgrims] come in droves ... We avoid them as best we can."
For weeks Hungary has been battling one of the world's highest coronavirus mortality rates, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Ahead of elections in 2022, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is trying to find the balance between the need to curb the pandemic and the need to reopen the country for the sake of the economy.
Orban's government has vilified immigrants and LGBTQ+ people, and even Hungary's Roma community, although it has kept a zero tolerance policy on antisemitism. Nevertheless, some Hungarians, especially in rural areas, remain hostile to Jews.
In Bodrogkeresztur, where the original Jewish population was wiped out during the Holocaust, Jews have bought dozens of houses, which they typically use only in April, to commemorate the death of their leader, who died on April 27, 1925.
The visitors boost employment in the poor area, and residents who provide services for them said they welcome the opportunity to earn some money.
Local woman Piroska Szantai works as a cook during the pilgrimage. "If I had to live off my pension, I would starve," she said.
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