In the 1960s, the Communist Secret Service launched an undercover operation targeting rabbis and Jewish youth who were engaging in Zionist activities. The investigation ended in some young people being handed suspended prison sentences and a 15-year ban on rabbinic activity for Szeged Rabbi Tamás Raj.
What does a no-go zone mean, and if it is an inaccurate term, what words can we use to describe a well-known reality that few would dare deny since the Amsterdam pogrom and the Hamas protests? The above dilemma is what Viktor Marsai, Omar Sayfo, and Kristóf György Veres try to unravel in their book Whose Space Is It? Parallel Societies and Urban Enclaves in Western Europe, published by MCC Press.
‘Hungarian Jews were generally known for their assimilated and law-abiding nature. By and large, they saw themselves as loyal Hungarian citizens and followed the law of the land to the letter. This was part of a well-rehearsed strategy on the part of their leaders. Between the emancipation of Hungarian Jewry and its nearly complete annihilation, Hungarian Jewish leaders experienced various levels of antisemitism. For most of their history, they could and did turn to the state authorities to ease their suffering. This strategy, useful during the previous decades, turned self-destructive in 1944–45.’
‘According to Dutch intelligence, Iran has used Moroccan Dutch gangsters to eliminate two “enemies of the state” abroad, but it also actively protects clan leaders. Between 2019 and 2021, during the time of the trial of a Moroccan clan chief, a key witness’ brother was killed, followed by his lawyer and finally a crime reporter who was covering the case. And what about antisemitism? Dutch Jews have been sounding the alarm for years.’
‘Mass immigration has changed the face of Europe. This is not to say that all immigrants are evil, but we would be blind to ignore the growing social, ethnic and religious tensions and security challenges that mass migration has brought to Europe in recent decades. As many have pointed out several times, one of the first victims of this is European Jewry.’
‘An important element of Viktor Orbán’s governance is that he knows Hungarian history and has learned from its mistakes. He does not want to repeat the sins committed by the historic Hungarian state during the 20th century. Hungary’s vision has thus not been blinded by the anti-Zionism of woke ideology, and it is able to recognize that Israel is the bastion of democracy and human rights in the Middle East, while successfully holding on to its religious and national traditions.’
‘Is it any surprise that the recent Dutch national elections were won by Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party? Is it surprising that the Dutch are fed up with uncontrolled—and, frankly, uncontrollable—immigration? Who would want to live in a country where there are about three bomb attacks every day? Who would want to run a business or open a shop in such a country? Make no mistake: this is the future from which Orbán is trying to save Hungary.’
‘Although the seemingly insurmountable challenge of these rapid changes may make us justifiably depressed, we need to think about the future of our children. Although they didn’t choose these changes, it is their lives that will be shaped by the processes that are starting now. It is up to us to make our voices heard—and the EP and Hungarian municipal elections will be a good opportunity to do so.’
‘The progressive side has created a “Jewish question”. The left has discovered the concept of race, merged it with other dimensions of oppression (class, gender), and now they have made the Jews into a new oppressive caste alongside Christian Protestants. After 1967 they focused only on “Zionists” and “Israelis”; now the Jews of the diaspora are the opponents. They don’t even hide their intentions, attacking synagogues, looking for “enemies” who “look Jewish” in the classrooms and in the corridors. The attacks have nothing to do with Israel: they are intended to intimidate the Jewish American community.’
‘Our continent is effectively under siege—we can see that if we are willing to move away from the narratives that interpret migration solely as a ‘refugee issue’ and acknowledge that mass migration can also be a tool for terrorism and destabilization. The number of irregular migrants arriving in the Canary Islands more than tripled in January this year compared to the previous year. Germany is overwhelmed. Reception capacity was already exceeded in 2023, when 330,000 asylum applications were submitted in just a year, mostly from Muslim countries.’
Gábor Deutsch, the staunchly anti-communist Chief Rabbi of Devecser, wrote a study on Judaism and Bolshevism published in 1937 in which his aim was ‘to prove, point by point, that the classical revelations of the Jewish religious ethos, the Scriptures and the Talmud are opposed sharply to the basic doctrines of Bolshevism’. On 4 July 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz, from where he never returned.
Many examples of resistance to the Nazis were cited by the national committees after the Soviet occupation, in the people’s prosecutors cases and the people’s tribunal cases as well. These materials still need to be explored by Hungarian historians.
In this article, historian László Bernát Veszprémy recounts the story of three Israeli prime ministers who resigned as a result of military debacles that happened under their leadership.
The booklet takes an in-depth look at the European phenomenon of migration, from the number of border crossings and the attitudes of the Hungarian society towards immigration to the V4 and their stance on migration. It also delves into the situation Mediterranean EU Member States find themselves in the current crisis, as well as the role of Turkey in tackling the migration waves and the security challenges posed by them.
Israel has not only released many prisoners in the past in exchange for living soldiers, such as Gilad Shalit in 2011, but the abduction of Israeli corpses has also proven to be a ‘fruitful venture’ for terrorists. In the Jewish religion, dead bodies are highly revered, and attempts are always made to bury them as soon as possible.
Jabotinsky was an old-fashioned nineteenth-century national liberal and a committed democrat, but it is still a matter of debate whether the same can be said of his supporters. The Zionist writer described his early worldview as ‘liberal anarchy’ in which ‘every individual is [worth as much as] a king’. The free market, freedom of the press, equality for women and respect for minority rights were fundamental tenets of his thinking. But there is good reason why there is an intense historiographical debate concerning Jabotinsky’s views.
‘What better explains the atrocities committed: coercion or the individual’s capacity or inclination for cruelty? Perhaps both, but to varying proportions.’ Author and historian László Borhi points out in his 2022 book The Strategies of Survival that, in his research, it was not always possible to draw a clear line between the different roles. ‘Several were convicted of collaborating with the Nazis and collaborating in atrocities, while other witnesses claimed that the person in question saved their lives’.
There is a group of people who will demand photos of Jewish victims and then, when they get them, rejoice in the fact of the killings. Meanwhile, one cannot forget that there is obviously a benign, uninformed majority that can be persuaded by either side, and Israel must not give up the possibility of persuasion.
Moscow has failed to condemn the 7 October Hamas attack as terrorism, and Putin has likened the Gaza blockade by Israel to the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany, effectively poisoning the previously amicable Russia–Israel relations.
Although a defining part of Netanyahu’s image is that of ‘Mr Security’, and he has even been nicknamed ‘King Bibi’, the spectacular fiasco of a 1997 Mossad operation he had ordered also earned him the epithet ‘Israel’s serial bungler’.
Can Netanyahu survive as prime minister in the wake of the Hamas attack? Are Jews really safer in Israel today than in the Diaspora? Hard questions that need to be asked.
The anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews demonstrating in New York are therefore not necessarily a curiosity. They are representatives of an old and historically legitimate school of thought, albeit completely marginalized and despised in their own religious milieu as well. Their presence simply demonstrates that Judaism is diverse, that there are all kinds of trends within it, and that it is not possible to treat this community as a single monolith.
On 15 October 1944, Horthy made an unsuccessful attempt to exit the Second World War. The operation failed due to a number of reasons: the resistance of some officers of the Royal Hungarian Army, organisational mistakes and pre-emptive actions by the Nazi secret service. Horthy was soon forced to resign.
‘These recent bloody events—and the videos of Arab crowds celebrating them, not just in Gaza, but in Europe too—show perfectly what a significant part of the Muslim Arab world thinks about the issue. The problem is not that Israel is ‘running the world’s largest concentration camp’ in Gaza (a distasteful and debatable claim in the first place, but let’s not go into that now). This conflict existed before the majority of people alive today were born.’
The work of Gombos, both as a writer and a literary historian, is still undeservedly understudied. As one of his admirers quite aptly wrote of him: ‘His place in the hierarchy of “populist” thinkers and writers is not in the second, but in the first rank, in the company of those whose intellectual and creative achievements can be considered particularly valuable and significant.’
The extreme judgements about Begin have often been motivated by political ambitions and therefore do not help historical clarity. 110 years after his birth it is time to appreciate his values while not turning a blind eye to his flaws either.
Faludy, one of the greatest Hungarian poets and literary translators of the 20th century, never really found his place in any system; he sooner or later became a nuisance to everyone, and even if sometimes made compromises, always did so provocatively, originally and with talent.
When it became evident that the War of Independence was lost, Prime Minister Bertalan Szemere and his men buried the Holy Crown and the other coronation regalia near Orsova (Orșova) in August 1849, to prevent the Habsburgs from laying their hands on them. The crown jewels were only found in September 1853.
Géza Szőcs, a Transylvanian Hungarian poet, writer, public intellectual and politician, who resisted the oppression of the Romanian communist dictatorship, was born exactly 70 years ago today.
National anniversaries, especially 15 March, were regularly celebrated in the Dohány Street synagogue. Mourning services were also held on the occasion of the passing of great Hungarian statesmen. In addition to the regular services, the synagogue also hosted a number of special events. On 20 December 1860, a ‘Jewish–Hungarian brotherhood’ ceremony was held, attended by statesmen, scholars, writers and artists, and for the first time, the Szózat was sung in a Jewish synagogue. On 8 April 1861, a memorial service was held for István Széchenyi, and in 1894 for Lajos Kossuth.