Claim: When designing the synagogue, Förster made some innovations: he had an organ built and the Torah reader's platform was put before the Ark, not in the centre of the synagogue; these innovations were accepted by the Orthodox majority of the city's Jews.
Evidence: When designing the synagogue, Förster made some innovations: he had an organ built and the Torah reader's platform was put before the Ark, not in the centre of the synagogue. These innovations were rejected by the Orthodox majority of the city's Jews, and in the year following the opening of the synagogue a rabbinical assembly in Sátoraljaújhely excommunicated the rabbi of Miskolc.