Noted Holocaust historian Randoph L. Braham is returning a high honor granted him by the Hungarian state. The action is a protest against what he called the government’s falsification of Holocaust history and attempts to whitewash Hungary’s role in the Holocaust. The Hungarian state news agency MTI on Sunday quoted a letter from Braham, 91,…
Hungarian Jewish leaders said on Tuesday they may stay away from commemorations of the Holocaust in 2014 because of resurgent anti-Semitism in a nation that has struggled to come to terms with a wartime role in deporting Jews. The Hungarian government is planning to mark the 70th anniversary of June 1944, when 437,000 Jews were…
Jewish leaders in Budapest criticized the planned commemoration of victims of Germany’s occupation because it ignored Hungarians’ complicity in the Holocaust. The plan announced Thursday involves erecting a monument in Freedom Square situated in the Hungarian capital’s 5th district. The top official in the district is a member of the ruling Fidesz party. The Hungarian…
The New York Times is conducting a survey of Hungarian Jews to help deepen its coverage of anti-Semitism in that country. The survey, published online Tuesday, asks respondents whether they experienced anti-Semitism and considered emigrating as a result, among other questions. “An openly anti-Semitic political party has gained power in Hungary’s Parliament in recent years,…
Concert pianist Andras Schiff said that he has been threatened with having his hands cut off if he returns to Hungary. Schiff, who has been an outspoken critic of the right wing government of Viktor Orban and its relationship with the anti-Semitic extremist Jobbik Party, told the BBC in an interview published Monday that “things…
A former leader of the ultranationalist Jobbik party in Hungary was sent out of Canada prior to a speaking engagement in Montreal. On Sunday, Canadian immigration officials ordered Csanad Szegedi on a plane back to Budapest just before he was slated to address a Chabad group. Approximately 200 people who came out to hear Szegedi,…
Akos Kertesz, an award-winning Hungarian Jewish writer, was granted political asylum in Canada. Kertesz, 80, who fled last year to Canada from Hungary, was given refugee status even though Ottawa in a move that stirred controversy a year ago placed Hungary on a list of “safe countries.” The author said he was the victim of…
The Herzl Center, an educational center designed to introduce Hungarian Jews to the Zionist movement, was inaugurated in Theodor Herzl’s birthplace, Budapest. The center was dedicated Sunday night at the city’s Israel Cultural Center. It was established by the World Zionist Organization and The Jewish Agency for Israel, with the assistance of the Herzl Center…
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