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REPORT AND DOCUMENTATION
ANTI-SEMITIC DISCOURSE IN HUNGARY
Erez Hagar -
Juden in Ungarn
Antisemitismus in Ungarn
Jüdische Gemeinden -
Ein Überblick - Ungarn
Schoah - Holocaust
"I
have never shared the opinion that anti-Semitism is created by Jews.
Anti-Semitism is created by anti-Semites and not by Jews. At the same time I
have to say that it is also not the Jews but the non-Jews who must fight
against anti-Semitism. Our task is to line up the non-Jews."
This was said by Stephen Roth at B’nai
B’rith’s 1992 conference, held in Budapest, on combating anti-Semitism in a
democratic society. We are trying to take Stephen Roth’s advice. Founded in
New York in 1843, B’nai B’rith became over the years the world’s largest
Jewish organization. (B’nai Brith means “Sons of the Cove-nant,” with the
term “covenant” referring to the alliance between God and the Jewish people,
a key concept in Jewish tradition.) The organization’s funda-mental
principle – the creation of unity among Jews – was declared upon its
foundation and is still valid today. B’nai B’rith places special emphasis on
the historical identity and common fate of the Jewish people.
Action against racism and especially
anti-Semitism is closely connected to the organization’s universal
objectives.
B’nai B’rith’s Hungarian member organization
– the B’nai B’rith Budapest Lodge – was established in 1990. It is
registered as an association.
The Executive Board of the B’nai B’rith
Budapest Lodge,
• sensing that anti-Semitic voices have become ever louder since the
political transition;
• sharing the rightful indignation and concern of its members as well as of
other Jewish organizations and personalities;
• complying with the widespread demand to take public action against this
unsettling phenomenon;
• mindful of the heavy burden carried by the previous generation;
• realizing the risks inherent in remaining silent, decided to hold up a
mirror to all those who are affected by or interested in the phenomenon in
order to make it more visible. Therefore, in late 1999 the Budapest Lodge of
B’nai Brith established the Jewish Documentation Center (ZsiDoK) in
Budapest. The Center is doing pioneering work in Hungary. Its objective is
to monitor and document Hungarian Jewish life including:
• the public activities and publications of Jewish organizations;
• scholarly research related to Jews and Jewish life;
• public statements concerning Jews;
• racist and especially anti-Semitic acts and statements in the public
sphere and in the activities of organizations on the extreme right.
The creation and continued operation of the
Jewish Documentation Center (ZsiDoK) have been made possible by support
primarily from the members of the B’nai B’rith Budapest Lodge. The
initiative and its implementation were welcomed by a relatively large
portion of Hungarian society. The European organization of B’nai B’rith was
instrumental in helping us through the initial phase of our work and the
Washington headquarters of B’nai B’rith also encour-aged us to pursue our
goals and provided valuable support.
The Jewish Documentation Center submitted a
grant application and received financial support from the Association of
Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ) and the Hungarian Jewish Heritage
Public Foundation. MAZSIHISZ also provides funding for current operations.
Through its media monitoring service, run in cooperation with other
organi-zations, the Center keeps track of relevant articles appearing in the
Hungarian press. It ensures that these publications are electronically
processed and kept on file. The Center’s procedure is to gather, store and
classify data pertaining to Hungarian Jewry, to make such data accessible to
researchers, and to cooperate with already existing Hungarian programs as
well as international organizations. At present the Center is only
collecting contemporary data, but it would like to extend its scope and
include materials dating back to the political transition and eventually as
far back as 1945. One of the plans to be realized in the near future is to
ensure Internet access to researchers working on our surveys. The reviewing
of the Hungarian printed press in the year 2000 resulted in the collection
of hundreds of documents – articles, essays, etc. In addition to factual
information pertaining to Hungarian Jewry, the material includes a fair
amount of unquestionably anti-Semitic pieces, as well as writings that are
regarded as anti-Semitic by certain segments of the public and works that
trig-gered discussions on anti-Semitism. Thus, the database of ZsiDoK is not
simply a collection of anti-Semitic articles, but rather a documentation of
public dis-course pertaining to anti-Semitism. The documentation of radio
and television programs is problematic at present, although such materials
should clearly be collected and processed as well. The Center is counting on
the contributions of concerned organizations, institutions, researchers and
other private individuals, as cooperation and mutual exchange of data may
facilitate the creation of a significant database providing reliable sources
for research. Naturally the Center, since its incep- tion, has provided
serious researchers and all interested parties access to its database.
Relying on this developing database, the B’nai B’rith Budapest Lodge wish-es
to publish reports regularly that would hold a kind of mirror to events
taking place in Hungary. This book is our first attempt to give a picture of
anti-Semitic acts and utterances occurring in Hungary in the year 2000. As
indicated by the title, the volume compiled by the editorial committee is
primarily aimed at doc-umenting the facts themselves as well as trends in
anti-Semitic discourse. So at the same time it is both more and less than a
comprehensive report on last year’s anti-Semitic manifestations in Hungary.
It has been a subject of heated debate whether our publication should be a
brief and factual situation report or a volume of essays based on the
collected data. This time we chose the latter approach, which still leaves
the question unanswered. Our dilemma could be more easily resolved if
readers of this book would share their reactions with us. There were other
discussions on whether to publish a separate volume in English or to issue a
bilingual edition. Due in part to economic considerations, we opted for a
bilingual publication: the first part of the book is in Hungarian, the
second in English. The English version is somewhat shorter; some of the
papers appear in an abridged form so as not to overtax foreign readers whose
knowledge of the current Hungarian situation may be limited. Whenever an
original paper has been abridged in translation, this is indicated at the
beginning of the article. We would like to thank Dr. Tibor Szeszlér, former
president of the B’nai B’rith Budapest Lodge, for conceiving the idea of the
Center and bringing it to fruition; historian László Varga for the
professional and intellectual guidance he provided in behalf of the
editorial committee, as well as the members of the edi-torial committee –
historian András Gerô, journalist Mátyás Vince, economic historian Vera
Pécsi and research fellow Gábor Schweitzer – for their selfless and
invaluable work. The Executive Board would like to take this opportunity to
express its appre-ciation to the entire ZSiDoK staff.
Special thanks to Ferenc Olti and István Kardos for acquiring and setting up
the computer system used in the project and for providing high quality
software support.
The Executive Board of the B’nai B’rith Budapest Lodge
Budapest, June 2001
hagalil.com
06-04-2003
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