The
appearance of a small, Arrow-Cross group with no more than
about 50 members, which planned to hold a demonstration on
October 15 (the day the Hungarian Nazis, Hitler’s last
allies, seized power in 1944), caused a storm in Hungarian
public life. In Attila Novák’s view, however,
the entire affair has been blown up out of all proportion,
and it only serves to strengthen the identity of the political
Left and the official Jewish community – the real danger
lies elsewhere, namely that the mainstream Right is legitimizing
the anti-Semitic voices centred around the extreme right
weekly Magyar Demokrata.
“
Operation Last Chance”, launched by the Simon Wiesenthal
Centre, aimed at tracking down war criminals and bringing them
to trial was received unfavourably not only by the Right, but
also by the Left in Hungary. János Gadó discusses
the possible reasons for this unfavourable reception. In his
view, there are two main reasons. On the one hand, at the core
of the operation initiated by the Wiesenthal Centre is the
effort to publicize Eastern Europe’s responsibility in
the persecution of the Jews during World War 2, which has by
now become something of a commonplace in Hungary, and many
Hungarian Holocaust scholars feel that the Centre is largely
ignoring their work in this field. On the other, the Centre
is essentially based in the US and Israel, both countries whose
prestige is rather low even in “progressive” left-wing
public opinion.
“
George Soros dislikes two things about himself: that he is
a capitalist and that he is Jewish. His books, his articles,
his lectures and his interviews reflect how he has arrived
at a rather curious interpretation of “open societies”,
which in his case incorporates also a critique of globalisation
and capitalism. His assertion that Israel, Jewry and he himself
is also responsible for growing anti-Semitism, made in November
last year, stirred a great public outcry.” László Seres
and Attila Novák offer an analysis of the policies pursued
by the renowned businessman.
Discussed in this month’s media review are the deceptive
voices in the spirit of political correctness in the left-wing
media and the spitefulness of the right-wing media as far as
issues regarding Jews and the Near East are concerned. Left-wing
writers regularly obscure the fact that the Islam fundamentalism
lies at the heart of terrorism, claiming that “extremists
are to be found everywhere” in the spirit of political
correctness. In an article published on September 11, 2004,
Magyar Nemzet, a right-wing daily, expressed the opinion that “it
is still unclear who can be blamed for the terrorist attacks
on September 11”, and cautiously propagates the lie (popular
among the extreme right, the extreme left and radical Islam)
that the US and Israel are to be blamed for the tragedy.
“
Tragedy does not end with the burial of the dead; for many
people, the daily fight against changed health and, often,
mental conditions begins that very day – the struggle
with the recurring images of the tragedy, the struggle to overcome
fear, enabling the victim to board a bus again and to venture
into the city.” Zsuzsa Shiri describes the Israeli social
worker network caring for the victims of terrorism.
An article on the activity of the Hungarian Jewish Social Help
Fund examines the question of what support members of the Jewish
community can count on in addition to the traditional social
care, to whom families can turn with second and third generation
Holocaust-related traumas and what kind of help they can expect.
The Hungarian Orthodox community elected a new president in
August following the death of Herman Fixler, who filled this
post for over thirty-five years. László Herczog,
the new president, was the earlier chief secretary of the community,
In Márton Csáki’s view, one of the positive
changes compared to the earlier, strong hand leadership style,
is that the elections elicited a great interest and a flurry
of activity among community members.
“
Jewish stones in the Hungarian landscape” – Gábor
T. Szántó describes his tour of the synagogues
and cemeteries in northeaster Hungary and southern Slovakia.
In the centre of Susan Rubin Suleiman’s writing (“Zirc”)
is a family photo made in February, 1944, on which a four year
old Jewish girl smiles into the camera in a photo studio. What
false sense of security motivated the girl’s mother to
act as if times were normal, just one month before the German
occupation of Hungary? – is the author’s puzzled
question.
URL: http://www.szombat.org/index.php?module=base&page=english
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