THIS was not how the Hungarian government wanted the week to start. Ferenc Orosz, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg Association, was watching a football match in a stadium with his family when nearby spectators started chanting ‘Mussolini’ and ‘Sieg Heil’.
Mr Orosz asked them to stop. He was threatened and called a ‘Jewish Communist’. When he tried to leave the stadium, two men blocked his way. One hit him in the face and broke his nose. Mr Orosz discharged himself from hospital to recount the details of his assault at a conference on hate speech on April 29th.
The attack comes at a particularly sensitive time. This weekend Budapest will host the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which represents Jewish communities around the world. The congress usually meets in Jerusalem, but has chosen to gather in Budapest to show solidarity with the Hungarian Jewish community after a series of anti-Semitic incidents that have caused alarm both in Hungary and abroad. “Anti-Semitism in Hungary is on the rise and we have also witnessed a dramatic growth in the number of attacks on other minorities such as the Roma,” Ronald Lauder, president of the WJC, told Reuters, a news agency.
A new report compiled by the Hungarian Federation of Jewish Communities and the Action and Protection Foundation, an NGO, detailing anti-Semitic incidents in Hungary in 2012 will be distributed to WJC delegates. The report, a copy of which has been obtained by The Economist, makes depressing reading: cemeteries desecrated; pigs trotters draped over a statue of Raoul Wallenberg; Nazi graffiti, verbal abuse, intimidation at football matches, sporadic physical attacks and Menorahs on display in public being kicked over.
The rise in anti-Semitism results from a number of factors. Certainly the gloomy state of the Hungarian economy is fuelling prejudice, not just against Jews but also against the Roma. The rise of the far-right Jobbik, the third-largest party in Parliament, has encouraged extremists. Jobbik denies it is anti-Semitic but Marton Gyöngyösi, a Jobbik MP, caused outrage last November when he called for Hungarian authorities to compile a list of Hungarian Jews for posing what he called “a national-security risk”. He later issued a qualified apology. Jobbik, its supporters, and groups even further to the right have a tightly organised presence on the internet, which is a major recruiting ground for extremism.
The government has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism, expressed its solidarity with the Jewish community and assured Hungarian Jews of their safety and security. When József Schweitzer, the former Chief Rabbi, was insulted in the street, János Áder, the president of Hungary, quickly paid a personal call to show his solidarity. Viktor Orbán (picture above), the Hungarian prime minister, will speak at the WJC congress on Sunday to reinforce this message. A new government-sponsored committee is planning nationwide commemoration events for 2014, the seventieth anniversary of the Hungarian Holocaust. Far-right demonstrations, including one called ‘Give Gas’, have been arbitrarily banned, incidentally raising concerns about civil liberties. Extremists mock the ruling Fidesz party as ‘Zsidesz’ a play on the Hungarian word ‘zsidó, meaning Jew.
It can sometimes seem that the government sends out different messages for different audiences. Ministers have stayed largely silent over the growing cult of Miklos Horthy, Hungary’s leader from 1920 to 1944, after several streets and squares were renamed in his honour.
Horthy was a staunch ally of Hitler and passed several anti-Semitic laws but refused to deport Hungarian Jews. However, after the Nazis invaded in March 1944, he stood by when Hungarian Gendarmes rounded more than 500,000 Jews and sent them to their deaths. In March the government triggered an outcry when it gave a prestigious award to several far-right wingers, including Ferenc Szaniszlo, a journalist prone to conspiracy theories. The government asked him to return the prize.
Despite the rise in anti-Semitism, it would be a mistake for the WJC to focus solely on the negative. Hungary is home to the third-largest Jewish community in Europe, between 80,000 and 100,000 strong. Jewish life here is enjoying a vibrant new renaissance. Budapest has numerous functioning synagogues, Jewish schools, restaurants and a community centre.
Each year the Jewish Summer Festival, which is heavily publicised across the city, brings tens of thousands of visitors to enjoy concerts, culinary and cultural events.
Budapest’s old Jewish quarter, the site of the former wartime ghetto, is now the liveliest part of town, with a buzzing nightlife to rival any European capital. For a real sense of Jewish life in Hungary, WJC delegates should leave their hotels and take a walk down Kazinczy street, where Hasidim and hipsters live congenially side by side.
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