Hungarian Conservative

16 April has been observed annually since 2001 as the Memorial Day of the Hungarian Victims of the Holocaust. On the 80th anniversary of the ghettoization of Hungarian Jews state dignitaries, including the Hungarian prime minister, and leaders of the Jewish community commemorated the victims.

After Hamas brutally attacked Israel on 7 October, the refugee camp on the shore of Lake Balaton in Hungary was converted into a safe haven for Israeli Jews who wanted to escape with their families from the horrors of war. The camp now houses around 250 people, including 100 children, most of whom have fled from Israel since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

In an interview with Hungarian news website Index, Mazsihisz Chief Rabbi Róbert Frölich declared that Budapest and Hungary as a whole are ‘an island of peace’ for the Jewish community.

The Hungarian Jewish leaders and the Israeli Prime Minister discussed issues of Jewish communal life in Hungary and the events that may accompany the possible relocation of the Hungarian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  With the potential move of the Hungarian mission to Jerusalem Hungary would become the first EU country to recognize that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.

A new photo and video exhibition titled Am I My Brother’s Keeper, curated by Yitzhak Mais, a prominent Israeli historian and former director of Yad Vashem’s historical museum, captures the unique moments of international cooperation to help Ukrainian Jewish refugees.

During his visit to Hungary, Eli Cohen also participated in the unveiling of the statue of Árpád Weisz, a Hungarian-born soccer player who coached Inter Milan and later Bologna before perishing in the Holocaust. The bronze statue was unveiled by Eli Cohen and Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, together with Sándor Csányi, the head of the Hungarian Football Association (MLSZ), and Giuseppe Saputo, the chairman of the Bologna football club.