Hungary recognized a Jewish sociologist, Andreas Kovacs, and two citizens accused of making anti-Semitic statements with prestigious national awards. Kovacs, 65, was one of 17 people presented the Szechenyi Prize on the occasion of Hungary’s March 15 national day. The prize, given to Kovacs for his decades-long research on postwar Jewish identity, anti-Semitism, minority rights…
An American Jewish organizational leader met with Hungarian political leaders to express concern about growing anti-Semitism in the country. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and Simon Samuels, head of the Paris office of the Wiesenthal Center, met in Budapest with Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Zsolt Németh and…
Hungary’s Jewish communities have created a watchdog organization on anti-Semitism modeled after the Anti-Defamation League. The new Budapest-based, non-governmental entity was recently registered in Hungary as Action and Protection Foundation, or TEV by its Hungarian-language acronym, and is set to have six employees and about 20 volunteers by June, according to Daniel Bodnar, chairman of…
Hungary’s main Jewish organization has urged the government and parliament to prevent the honoring of Miklos Horthy, the country’s Holocaust-era ruler. Horthy had “direct responsibility for the killing and destruction of several hundred thousand Hungarian Jews,” the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, or Mazsihisz, said in a statement Wednesday. The statement was in reaction to…
Members of the student council of the University of Budapest reportedly have compiled illegal lists of students’ presumed religion, ethnic background including Jewish origins, and political affiliation. The files were compiled annually on freshmen by the HÖK student council, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Hungarian television channel ATV, which received a…
Three years ago, Fanni moved to Vienna from her native Hungary with her husband. Now she is pregnant. Though the couple would prefer to raise their child near their Jewish families in Budapest, rising nationalism and an economic recession are leading them to stay in Austria. “I don’t want to cut my roots, but I…
Anti-Semitism in Hungary is causing an influx of Jewish immigrants to Austria, the head of Vienna’s Jewish community reportedly said. “I am pleased people are coming but the circumstances that force them to leave Hungary due to the political situation, due to anti-Semitism, don’t please me at all,” Oskar Deutsch, president of the Vienna Jewish…
The Jewish community of Budapest has announced plans to build a new synagogue for the first time in 80 years. The foundation stone for the new synagogue in Budapest’s Csepel district is scheduled to be laid in a ceremony on Sunday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, attended by leaders of Hungary’s Jewish community and senior government…
