Tagged Hungarian Jews

First bar mitzvah in centuries celebrated at reopened Budapest shul
February 1, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — A synagogue that was returned recently to Hungarian Jews following centuries of disuse hosted its first bar mitzvah in 332 years. The young celebrant, Yonatan Sebok, had his rite of passage event on Jan. 26 at the Buda Castle Synagogue, which reopened in September, the website Chabag.org reported Wednesday.… Read more »

When Dutch Jews found haven in an anti-Semitic Hungary

A Jewish family reunited in Budapest in 1943 following the arrival there of family members from Holland. (Courtesy of Willy Lindwer)
October 18, 2018 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — When her classmates were sent from occupied Holland to death camps, Emmy Korodi and her Dutch-Jewish family were safe in Hungary — one of Nazi Germany’s closest allies. Her family were among some 90 Jews who, at the height of World War II, survived for the unlikeliest… Read more »

Non-Jewish activists link arms with Hungarian Jews in ‘symbols war’

Protesters at a 2014 rally in Budapest against the Hungarian government's planned statue that was seen as minimizing Hungarian complicity during the Holocaust. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
March 11, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) – Hungarian officials likely anticipated some Jewish opposition to their decision to erect a monument in Budapest to a Holocaust-era lawmaker who promoted anti-Semitic legislation. What they probably didn’t expect was that the Feb. 24 unveiling of a bust honoring Gyorgy Donath would attract a protest of mostly… Read more »

Boycotting government Holocaust commemorations, Hungary’s Jews forge new path
June 11, 2014 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA
Passersby look at the Holocaust-related and other memorabilia left by citizens protesting the monument to the 1944 German occupation, under construction behind sheeting across the street in downtown Budapest. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (JTA) — It isn’t every day that Jewish organizations reject funding for Holocaust commemorations. But that’s what happened in Hungary this spring when Jewish groups refused nearly $1 million in special state grants to protest what they see as the government’s whitewashing of Hungarian complicity in the… Read more »