SALE! MARCH 36 MONTH "0" DOWN LEASE SPECIALS •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • '99 PROTEGE LX Hope In Hungary Auto, Air, AM/FM CD Power Windows, Locks & Mirrors, Cruise & More! Seders in the countryside signify the possibility of a Jewish revival. MICHAEL J. JORDAN Jewish Telegraphic Agency Budapest t was at Rosh Hashanah last year at the university that Adam Balogh first noticed a young woman wearing a Star of David around her neck. As leader of the tiny Szeged branch of the Hungarian Union of Jewish Students, Balogh, a 19-year- 1d law student, makes it his business to unite the local Jews. He approached to ask her if she was indeed Jewish. Saying that she was, the woman then admitted that she didn't know what being Jewish meant. Balogh invited her to come along to syna- gogue. Her response, he said, was: "How __much does it cost to get in?'" An extreme case, perhaps. But one that reveals the sorry state of Jewry in the Hungarian countryside. Before the war, three-quarters of the 800,000-strong Jewish community lived in the provinces; today, just a smattering of the 100,000 or so Hungarian Jews reside outside of Budapest, the capital. So thorough was the Nazi and JHungarian genocide, so complete the assimilation and repression of Jewishness during the communist era that followed, that now a woman whose own grandfa- ther had been president of the lively Nyiregyhaza Jewish community actually was telling Balogh she thought she had to pay to pray 'After the war, so many people forgot they were Jewish," said Balogh. "We have to remind them of it, and revive Jewish life." Thanks to the efforts of Balogh and others, there's now a glimmer of hope. Since October, that same woman with the Star of David has become one of the most active of Szeged's two dozen stu- dent members. In December, the Jewish students' network unveiled its fourth affiliate in the provinces — the eight- member Nagykanizsa chapter, which joins others in Szeged, Pecs and Debrecen. A fifth chapter may be founded in Szombathely, a small western Hungarian city that borders Austria. The strides made by UJS in the past year will be capped by a huge Passover seder in Budapest, which is expected to draw many young Jews from the coun- tryside. For those who stay home, com- munity seders will be held in several smaller cities. That there's now a Jewish pulse in the countryside comes as a great surprise in Budapest, even among the small core of young Jewish activists. "I really thought there weren't any Jews left out there," said Janos Ratonyi, 25. "I thought they were killed in the Holocaust, left the country, moved to Budapest or com- pletely gave up being Jewish." Before the collapse of communism in 1989, Jews in the provinces had an idea Auto, Air, AM/FM CD Power Windows, Locks & Mirrors, Cruise & More! '99 MILLENIA $328 *$ arjgd nun e g BUY FOR $22 799** Auto, Air, AM/FM CD Power Windows, Locks & Mirrors, Cruise & More! *MAC RE-LEASE CUSTOMERS SAVE MORE* "So many people forgot they were Jewish." €a 37911 GRAND RIVER (west of Halsted) • FARMINGTON HILLS (248) 471-0800 Mon. & Thurs. 9-9 • Tues., Wed. & Fri. 9-6 pm All leases plus tax. title. DOC + plate lee. 0.9°. APR to qualified buyers cannot be combined edealer or customer rebates. Plus tax. title. DOC + plate tee. All rebates to dealer. • •*.$500 re-lease incentive to qualified MAC re-lease customers. — of who else was Jewish, but wouldn't dis- cuss it publicly. In an oppressive system that fostered paranoia, Jews had to be cautious about who to trust and what information to divulge. "Zionist" was a frequent accusation against those who seemed too Jewish. With so much kept secret from Jewish children, only recently have they discovered their Jewishness. Three years ago, activists in Pecs sought help to form the first chapter outside Budapest. Csaba Kurti, 22, president of the 40-member group, said leaders "went door to door, asking older Jews we knew who still went to synagogue" about their grandchildren, and where they were. Even when approached, many of the young Jews shy away from joining an openly Jewish group. "They say they have their Jewish friends and that's enough," said Gyorgy Gador, a Budapest native who helped found the Szeged chapter of the group while studying in town. "They don't want to get together with other Jews where the only reason for doing it is because they're Jewish." With the lion's share of foreign investment, infrastructure projects and job creation centered on Budapest, little of it trickles into the countryside. The future of Jewry in Hungary appears to be an economic question. 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