Hungary Jews Bounce Leader Mate Feldmajer for Anti-Gay Stand
Hungarian Jewish leaders condemned a prominent member of the community for his anti-gay statements.
On Monday, the Mazsihisz federation of Jewish communities ordered an internal investigation into the conduct of Mate Feldmajer, head of the Mazsihisz youth division, who last week said in an internal email that homosexuals “do not make recommendations [at Mazsihisz],” and should not touch or read from the Torah, or preside as members of the Mazsihisz board.
Mazsihisz, or the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, is the main umbrella group of Hungarian Jewry and is affiliated with the Neolog community, a moderate reformist movement.
In a statement issued Monday, Mazsihisz wrote that the community “strongly condemns any manifestation of exclusion,” adding: “Our Association opposes and combats racism and anti-Roma sentiment, anti-Semitism and homophobia.”
The statements by Mate Feldmajer – a son of Mazsihisz’s former president, Peter Feldmajer — were made in response to criticisms of Mate Feldmajer’s performance by a fellow Jewish leader identified as David S., whom Hungarian media reported was gay.
David S. criticized Mate Feldmajer in connection to a charity activity organized last week at Csenyete, a town in northeastern Hungary.
Led by Mate Feldmajer, Jewish and Muslim activists distributed clothes and other gifts to impoverished Hungarians from the Roma community of Csenyete. During the Nov. 17 distribution, dozens of Roma began squabbling, shoving and threatening each other.
David S. wrote that the distribution was “in violation of the fundamentals of our beliefs on how charity should be performed.”
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
