Jewish leaders in Hungary condemned a politician from the far-right Jobbik party who refused to honor the memory of a former chief rabbi. The Mazsihisz federation of Hungarian Jewish communities issued its condemnation Friday against Laszlo Benke, an alderman of Budapest’s 13th district representing Jobbik — a movement which the European Jewish Congress has called…
(Reuters) — Prime Minister Viktor Orban overcame unease within his government to acknowledge Hungary’s role in the Holocaust on Monday, saying many people in the central European country acted “shamefully” in World War Two. Speaking at a memorial for Jewish soldiers who died defending Hungary’s borders during World War One, Orban said Hungary also owed…
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…
(JTA) — In the 22 years he ran Hungary’s Mazsihisz Jewish umbrella organization, Gusztav Zoltai was called out for many things. Zoltai, a former secret police agent who led the Jewish federation until his retirement earlier this year, was accused of corruption and labeled a relic of dark times. Others took issue with his flirtatious…
The policies of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister are starting to bear an eerie resemblance to climate change: The critics all look like a bunch of whining scaremongers prophesying an implausibly apocalyptic ruination that’s sure to come in some fuzzily distant end-time. Even if it’s true, it’s too far away to worry about. That is, until…
Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party is on track to take over dozens of city halls in a municipal election on Sunday, handing it new powers that, critics say, it will use to persecute ethnic minorities. Already the second biggest force in parliament, Jobbik is one of Europe’s most influential far-right parties. Its rise has drawn international…
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