Israel, Budapest Remember Jewish Heritage Amid Antisemitic Row (Worthy News Radio)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Israel and Hungary continue to be involved in the 150th anniversary of the city of Budapest and further encourage a Jewish revival in the capital despite a fresh row over perceived antisemitism.
Celebrations have been overshadowed by a senior government who has faced sharp condemnation for praising the country’s World War II-era leader, an ally of Nazi Germany who imposed Europe’s first anti-Jewish laws of the 20th century, as an exceptional head of state and a hero.
Hungarian Minister of Construction and Transportation János Lázár made the comments this month during a ceremony held on the 30th anniversary of the reburial of Miklós Horthy, Hungary’s regent during most of World War II.
The Israeli Embassy responded to Lázár, saying: “Glorifying a person who’s (sic) deeds brought a catastrophe upon the Hungarian people and especially the Jewish compatriots of which around 600,000 innocent men, women and children were murdered, has no place in a modern Hungary.”
The U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, argued that Lazar’s participation in the event honoring Horthy concerned the U.S. government. “Miklos Horthy was complicit in the slaughter of Hungary’s Jewish population during the Holocaust. The United States is concerned by the participation of a senior [Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán government official in efforts to rehabilitate and promote his brutal legacy,” Pressman wrote.
Earlier, a bronze bust of Horthy was unveiled outside a church in central Budapest in 2013, prompting protests including from Washington. Another Horthy figure installed last year in the parliamentary offices of a far-right party was denounced by the Israeli Embassy in the Hungarian capital.
CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE
Despite the row, the seven-month event, “150 Years of Jewish Budapest,” opened during one of Europe’s largest annual Jewish festivals.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, made musical history as it performed a new piece of music for the first time. It’s called the Budapest Overture and was written by composer Patrik Oláh. Several thousand Hungarians gathered to hear it in the city’s Heroes’ Square.
The music echoing through the streets here on a late summer day reflected Budapest’s challenges over the past 150 years – war, revolution, and dictatorship.
The city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, said that the 150th anniversary of Budapest marks more than the unification of the regions of Pest, Buda, and Óbuda into one city.
That’s why he and Israel’s ambassador opened “150 Years of Jewish Budapest” as part of the celebrations. Karácsony believes that Budapest was born out of Hungarianess and Europeaness, allowing Jews and Christians to coexist in this city of nearly two million people.
In a symbolic move, Karácsony reopened the renovated Lánchíd, or “Chain Bridge,” Hungary’s first permanent bridge crossing the Danube River. It unites the western and eastern sides of Budapest.
“This is the day that everyone was waiting for, the opening of the chain bridge. This structure is really the pride of Budapest. It is wonderful, and I hope everyone will use it. This bridge is also a link to the future,” he said.
JEWISH QUARTER
Crossing the Chain Bridge eastwards is the Jewish Quarter. Here, one of Europe’s largest annual Jewish Cultural Festivals is underway. Music reverberates through the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe.
Tamás Mester, who heads the Budapest Jewish Community, opened the event by noting that the Jewish Festival has a history of 25 years. “The event’s aim has always been to strengthen the Jewish identity. We also remember that 150 years ago, on the left bank of the Danube River was Pest,” he told a packed gathering in the Dohány Street Synagogue, Europe’s largest.
“On the right side were the Buda and Obuda areas. In November 1873, they were united into Budapest. A famous Jewish doctor said at the time: ‘Now we are all part of Budapest,’” he recalled.
“The unification opened the door for citizens to participate in urbanization. Major cultural developments began then in which the Jewish community played a significant role, which still resonates today. That is why we are involved in the special programs remembering the 150th anniversary of Budapest.”
Mester said that until World War Two broke out, Budapest was similar to New York, with its mix of cultures. And now, the city wants to bring that atmosphere back through different music styles and art forms.
Yet the synagogue where he spoke was once part of the narrow Jewish ghetto created by a Hungarian government that cooperated with Nazi Germany.
Tens of thousands of Jews were cramped into overcrowded buildings, no food was allowed in, rubbish and waste were not collected, and the dead piled up on the streets. Most were deported to Nazi death camps. However, Zsuzsanna Toronyi, the director of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives, suggested that Jewish resilience during the war and the post-war communist dictatorship enabled a Jewish revival.
JEWISH COLLECTIONS
“On the last general assembly of the Jewish Museum, which convened in 1943, just before the German invasion of Hungary, they had two speeches. One by Philip Grunwald, who was the deputy director of the Jewish museum. He reported on the situation of Jewish collections in Europe,” she said.
“He knew about the closing of the German Jewish museums, the fate of the Vienna Jewish Museum, and the story of the Prague Jewish Museum. However, he emphasized in the autumn of 1943 that the Budapest Hungarian Jewish Museum remained the only historical Jewish institution in Europe that could operate as it had before the war.”
Toronyi briefly paused. “It was followed by another speech by Ernest Namenyi, a historian and co-president who optimistically invoked the story of Noah in Genesis, saying it was necessary to shelter the Jewish heritage until the rainbow of peace reappeared.”
In the decades after the war, Jewish leaders were forced to cooperate with the Communist regime.
Yet they managed to salvage valuable items and maintain the Jewish museum as well as the Communist bloc’s only Rabbinical Seminary. These actions ensured that future generations wouldn’t forget the city’s rich Jewish cultural and religious heritage.
The efforts by Holocaust survivors and others to preserve this past seem to have worked. Around 600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah. But the country’s Jewish community now comprises at least 100,000 people, the largest in Eastern Europe outside Russia.
The city authorities hope that Budapest’s 150th anniversary will help heal the wounds of history and herald a new era of cultural excitement.
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.