THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
40 Friday, May 22, 1981 ,
Future Doubtful for Hungarian Jews Despite Rich Communal Life
By ROCHELLE
SAIDEL-WOLK
BUDAPEST (JTA) —
"You will convince yourse-
lves during your short visit
to Budapest that Hunga-
rian Jewry is clinging to its
traditions in a true Jewish
spirit," Ilona Seifert,
Secretary-General of the
Central Board for Hunga-
rian Jews (WOK), said in
her welcome to members of
a United Jewish Appeal-
American Jewish Press
Association mission.
After observing the
Budapest Jewish commu-
nity's various institutions
for a week, this correspon-
dent concurs with Seifert's
remark.
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house and 12 kosher butch-
ers; a salami plant, winery
and matza factory; an old
age home and (mainly
geriatric) hospital; a kosher
restaurant and kitchen to
provide meals for the poor; a
mohel, mikva and burial
society; social welfare pro-
grams; a semi-monthly
newspaper, choir, libraries
and museum; and the only
rabbinical seminary behind
the Iron Curtain.
Hungarian Jews today
have a richer communal
life than any other
Jewish community in
Eastern Europe.
The number of Jews in
Hungary today is not
known, because census by
religion is illegal. MIOK
and the American Joint
Distribution Committee
(JDC) claim the Jewish
population is 80,000 to
100,000, with 80 percent re-
siding in BUdapest, the cap-
ital.
According to a reliable
source, the number of prac-
ticing Jews in Hungary is
probably closer to 15,000.
Many of the others, counted
as Jews by MIOK and JDC,
are atheist-Communists of
Jewish descent who no
longer have connections
with the Jewish commu-
nity. Some 15,000 people
pay taxes to the Jewish
community, and this same
number of seats is filled in
the synagogues of Hungary
on Yom Kippur, the source
revealed.
MIOK officials were not
forthcoming with statistics
or demographic data, except
in the most general terms.
Although asked several
times the number of chil-
dren in Talmud Torahs,
they would not offer an es-
timate. They were also re-
luctant to provide a break-
down of the Jewish popula-
tion according to age, or the
annual birth and death
rates.
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the children of our chil-
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Budapest, built in 1854, is
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synagogue.
dren, thus the second
generation after the
war," Seifert said. "This
proves that we have
passed the crises, we
have a Jewish future. We
have children who know
the Sh'ma." She added
that the work of a young
Orthodox mohel, trained
in London, "keeps him so
busy that he has very lit-
tle free time." But there
are 2,000 deaths per year
and only some 100 births,
a knowledgeable source
estimated.
By 1940, there were
800,000 Jews living in
Hungary; 600,000 perished
toward the end of the
Holocaust, despite efforts by
Hungarian Jewish emis-
saries to enlist the aid of the
Allies and the Jewish
Agency. Most of the victims
lived outside Budapest.
Beginning in the spring
of 1944, regularly scheduled
transports of Jews left for
Auschwitz from the coun-
tryside. Only because the
Red Army surrounded
Budapest in January, 1945
before the Nazis could liq-
uidate the ghetto, were
70,000 of the 100,000 Jews
there saved.
Although the Hungarian
Jews were the last to be
murdered in the Holocaust,
they were the first to fall
victim to official 20th Cen-
tury anti-Semitism. Soon
after Admiral Nicholas
Horthy began his regime in
1919, he passed a numerus
clausus law restricting the
enrollment of Jewish stu-
dents at universities to the
percentage of Jews in the
general population.
Jews have lived in
Hungary for more than
1,700 years. A Third Cen-
tury tombstone in the
Budapest Jewish
Museum proves that
Jews lived in the area
earlier than ethnic Hun-
garians, according to Dr.
Ilona Benoshovsky,
curator. In the 12th Cen-
tury, the Arpad kings
•welcomed the commer-
cial aid of the Jews and a
Jewish community set-
tled in Buda, now part of
Budapest. In the 18th
Century, with a massive
migration of Jews from
Moravia and Polish
Galicia, Hungary became
the seat of important
Jewish religious, educa-
tional and welfare in-
' stitutions.
When Hungary became
an independent kingdom in
1867, Jews were granted
complete political equality.
Judaism became "a legally
recognized religion" accord-
ing to the Reception Law of
1896, and Jews made sig-
nificant contributions to
Hungarian cultural and
economic life until World
War I.
The MIOK coordinates
most of the Jewish activities
and institutions in Hungary
and is the national body
which speaks for all Hunga-
rian Jews and also conveys
official government policies
on religious affairs to all
Jews, has 300 elected mem-
bers who elect a 47-member
governing council.
Perhaps the most impor-
tant Jewish institution in
Hungary is the Jewish
Theological Seminary in
Budapest, the only one in
Eastern Europe. The semi-
nary not only trains rabbin-
ical students from Hungary,
but also from other Soviet
Bloc countries. There are
currently four Soviet stu-
dents, one from Czechos-
lovakia and two from Bul-
garia.
Sandor
Rabbi
Scheiber, head of the
seminary, is Hungary's
leading scholar and his-
torian. He is an expert on
the rare volumes in the
Jewish library housed in
the seminary, and also on
the Kaufman collection
in the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences.
(The Kaufman collec-
tion contains illuminated
Hebrew manuscripts dat-
ing back to the 13th Cen-
tury.)
The Chief Rabbi of Hun-
gary, Laszlo Salgo, was
elected to Parliament in
1980. He is a government
emissary to the community
and a community emissary
to the government. "The
Minister of Religion has a
permanent connection with
our leaders and knows
about our problems," he
said.
According to the Deputy
Minister of the State Office
of Church Affairs, there is a
"good understanding be-
tween the churches and the
socialists . . . The relation-
ship between church and
state is satisfactory here.
Religious people are not
persecuted under
socialism." This echoed
Seifert's statement that
"the relationship between
our state and our religion is
a very good one, and both
our state and our religion
strive to cultivate the
same."
,
To assess the future of
Judaism in Hungary, it is
necessary to evaluate what
incentives and inspiration
the community can offer to
children and young people
who stay within "the fold."
In Hungary, Judaism is
linked with the sorrow of
the Holocaust, but the joy of
Israel is officially denied to
the children (and adults).
While Israel provides a
basis for lively and exciting
curricula in Western He-
brew schools and day
Budapest's central kosher kichen, funded in part
by the Joint Distribution Committee, prepares 25,000
meals each year which are distributed at 10 different
sites.
schools, the children of as much as it does th'
Hungary learn pre-Israel Jewish community.)
"heder-type" lessons.
Will the Jewish children
On the day of our visit, of Hungary choose to re-
in addition to the aleph- main in the community, or
bes (in Ashkenazi), the is the future of Hungarian
students were discussing Jewry doomed? MIOK offi-
Tu b'Shevat. But they cials spoke of the future
could not learn of the ac- glowingly, but knowledge-
complishments of Israeli able individuals admitted
pioneers, the work of the privately that the future is
Jewish National Fund, or grim.
the agricultural products
of modern Israel. Nor
could they experience the AJCongress Ad
joy of purchasing trees,
Questions
planted in their names in
Israel. What can Tu Budget Policy
b'Shevat mean to them?
NEW YORK — Charging
The holiday, like the
that
the Reagan Adminis-
Jewish religion, becomes
tration's budget-cutting
a sterile anachronism.
There are no youth proposals give "little reason
groups with a cultural or for confidence that there
ethnic Jewish approach to will be equality of sacrifice,"
augment Talmud Torah the American Jewish Con-
education Such groups are gress, in an ad in the New ,
illegal, according to a reli- York Times, called on the
able source. Nor are there "community of conscience"
any independent Jewish to protect "the great social
legislation of the last half
leaders to serve as mentors
century, press the fight for
for Hungary's Jewish
social justice and defend the
youth. The community
most vulnerable in our
leadership is paid by the
society."
state.
In a Communist athetist
The statement, which
country dedicated to the ul- was adopted by the AJCon-
timate disappearance of all gress at its annual meeting
religion, it is of no advan- last month, urges that a
tage to belong to any reli- "fellowship of commitment
gious group — especially a and action" be formed by
small minority such as like-minded groups and in-
Judaism. While Hungary dividuals to ensure that
-tolerates all religions, there "legitimate efforts to reduce
is subtle pressure away government's growth and to
from religious affiliation. alter the balance between
Many Jews. in Hungary Washington and the states
today are not part of the are not used as a smokesc-
Jewish community, and reen to abdicate govern-
consider themselves ment's policy to advance the
"Communists of Jewish de- public welfare and defend
scent."
the public good."-
"The government has
come to the conclusion that
religion can be co-opted into Asiatic Relations
their plan, so that religion
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
will die naturally over a Israel maintains diplomatic
long period of time," an ex- ties with most Asiatic
pert on Hungary explained. countries. It has embassies
"If the churches are de- in Japan, the Philippines,
prived of real political Singapore, Burma, Thai-
power, they are not danger- land and Nepal, a consulate
ous. The government.uses a in Bombay, India and mai ,'
strategy of co-opting the tains relations with Sout ,.._
churches, while allowing Korea.
freedom of religion."
Israel also has economic
This theory seemed ties with Indonesia, Sri
borne out by the fact that Lanka and Taiwan.
no member of the Jewish
community is a high gov-
ernment official. Jews Named to Post
NEW YORK — Washing-
who are not members of
the community, however, ton attorney Melvin Rishe
do hold such positions. was recently named the
(The exception is Chief Washington counsel of
Rabbi Laszlo Salgo, who Agudath Israel of America
is a member of Parlia- as part of the Orthodox
ment. His dual capacity Jewish organization's new
seems to benefit the state office in the nation's capitol.