The refugee crisis is making headlines the world over. Here in Hungary, most refugees arriving treat the country as a stop, part of a longer journey to Western Europe. Thousands are taking temporary shelter in one of Budapest’s three main train stations. The lower level of the Keleti train station links directly with the entrance…
Thousands came out for the the March of the Living in Budapest, where World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder reminded the Hungarian government to speak out against anti-Semitism. Lauder also denounced the far-right Jobbik party, the second largest in the country, as “extremist” on Sunday at the annual commemoration of the Holocaust in the Hungarian…
An anti-corruption whistleblower elected to head the Budapest Jewish community has sparked a crisis among the highest officials of Hungarian Jewry at a time of heightened tensions with the government. The conflict, one of the fractious community’s most vociferous and colorful fights in years, erupted shortly after the election last month of David Schwezoff as…
Hungarian Holocaust survivors had a difficult time handling the presence of Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Auschwitz death camp commander Rudolf Hoess, at an event in Budapest. Rainer Hoess was one of the guest speakers at the commemoration, which was one of the closing events of this year’s 70th anniversary of the start of the…
The head of Budapest’s Jewish community said he filed a complaint with police alleging fraud and embezzlement at the historic Dohany Street Synagogue. David Schwezoff told the Hungarian media last week that the community was at least $400,000 short in ticket revenues from visitors to the synagogue, the Nepszava newspaper reported Monday. The president of…
For no particular reason, I find myself attending a service in a Budapest church that is rumored to be associated with the far-right Jobbik party. There’s no cross in this church, only flags, and quite many of them, depicting Hungary in various historical stages. Some of the flags contain the so-called Árpád stripes, which opponents…
(Reuters) — Tamas Marton was a Budapest schoolboy in 1944 when Hungarians allied to Nazi Germany helped to deport half a million Jews, including his mother, to death camps. Seventy years on, as Hungarians still grapple with the past and many support the far-right Jobbik party, the government finds itself in conflict with the Jewish…
Tens of thousands of Jews and Jewish supporters participated in the 12th March of the Living Hungary in Budapest. Sunday’s event, considered the largest civil anti-fascist event in Hungary, was held on the 70th anniversary of the mass deportation of Jews from Hungary by the Nazis. Holding posters saying “Never again” and “History cannot be…
100% of profits support our journalism
