Hungarian Conservative

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel Israel Katz visited Hungary recently for the first time since he took up office. He met with President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, and the leaders of the Hungarian Jewish communities. The main aim of the visit was to determine, with Hungary soon taking over the presidency of the EU, how Budapest and the Union would take action against anti-Israel efforts in the next six months.

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.

Early in March Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli visited Hungary and met Hungary’s Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, several Hungarian Jewish community leaders, while also giving presentations on the Gaza War. Jews in Hungary can practice their faith in safety in contrast to many other European nations, he noted during his visit.

Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man attended a pro-Israel gathering in Thousand Oaks, California when a pro-Palestine group showed up. He died after a punch knocked him to the ground and hit his head. The police have already questioned a suspect, but released them, as they have received conflicting eyewitness reports about who the aggressor was.

According to the sources reviewed, it is evident that Jewish communities were subjected to the same extent of plundering by the short-lived Communist regime in 1919 as the Christian churches.