The Hero of Budapest: The Triumph and Tragedy of Raoul Wallenberg By Bergt Jangfeldt Translated by Harry Watson I.B. Tauris, 352 pages, $35 Next year will mark the 70th anniversary of the disappearance in a Soviet prison of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish businessman who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews in the darkest days of the…
A Hungarian official said a planned Jewish community boycott of Holocaust commemorations could harm relations between Hungarian Jews and non-Jews. The government’s commemoration plans “face failure because of the absence of Mazsihisz,” Janos Lazar, chief of staff of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said at a press conference Tuesday, referring to the country’s Jewish umbrella organization….
Hungarian authorities postponed a ceremony commemorating victims of World War II following protests by Jewish groups that said it obfuscated Hungary’s Holocaust-era role. The ceremony, which had been planned for March 19, was organized around the inauguration of a monument which the government has described as “dedicated to the memory of the German occupation.” But…
One hundred Torah scrolls that were looted from Hungary during World War II were discovered in Russia by a chief rabbi of Hungary. Rabbi Slomo Koves, executive rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, or EMIH, discovered the scrolls and other pieces of Judaica in the Lenin Library in the town of Nizhniy Novgorod. Hungary’s…
A Hungarian rabbi said on Tuesday he had uncovered 103 Torah scrolls stolen from Hungarian Jews during World War Two and stashed in a Russian library, adding he planned to restore and return them to the Jewish community. Slomo Koves, chief rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, said he had found the scrolls while…
Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party held a political rally in a former synagogue, despite protests. The rally by the party, whose ultra-nationalist platform is laced with anti-Semitism and anti-Roma policy, was held Saturday night in the former synagogue in the town of Esztergom, located 29 miles north of Budapest. The building currently is operated by the…
Hungary’s main Jewish group voted on Sunday to boycott official Holocaust commemorations this year unless they more clearly show the role of local citizens in the Nazi deportation and killing of Hungarian Jews. The Hungarian Jewish Congregations’ Association (Mazsihisz) decided to stay away from events marking the 70th anniversary of June 1944, when 437,000 Jews…
Efforts are underway to prevent Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party from holding a political rally in a former synagogue. Last week, the chairman of the local chapter of the opposition Hungarian Socialist Party sent an open letter to the mayor of Esztergom urging her to bar the rally from the synagogue. “The choice of location for…
