Ceremonies in Budapest inaugurated Raoul Wallenberg Year, a series of events marking the centennial of the birth of the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.\n
In early 1945 in Hungary, as the Nazis were being routed out of Budapest by the Soviet army, 8-year-old Nicholas Frank came out of the Red Cross shelter where he, his mother and his older sister had been hiding. He looked at the destroyed city around him and realized that this devastation was not an act of nature. National leaders and influential decision-makers had caused it to happen. Even at 8, he sensed there must be a better way for human beings to live together.
There have been no rallies, no ad campaigns, no testy community discussions here on the Palestinians\’ bid for statehood.
Reports released by a Jewish think tank in London highlighted the need for the reform of Jewish infrastructure in Hungary and support for Orthodox and non-Orthodox alternatives in Poland.
Chabad will establish six new student centers on college campuses in Northern Europe over the next year.
Sarah Stipanowich, Jacob Kagon and Aaron Kagon, eighth-grade students at Malibu High School, were named the winners of Friedensmahnmal-Preis — which means Peace Memorial Award in German — an international Holocaust essay contest inspired by the story of Sandor Vandor, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.
Right-wing elements in Hungary and Lithuania marked Adolf Hitler\’s birthday. A Hungarian online news channel backed by the extreme-right party Jobbik aired a segment on Hitler on April 20, the 122nd anniversary of his birth, the French news agency AFP reported. The 30-second piece praised Hitler for his “economic and moral contribution” to Germany.
The Australian government is appealing a court ruling that spared an alleged Nazi war criminal from being extradited to Hungary. Home Affairs Minister Brendan O\’Connor approved the extradition of Charles Zentai in 2009, but a Federal Court judge overturned the decision last year. The government on Tuesday appealed the ruling that said Zentai, 89, of Perth, was not eligible for extradition. Zentai, a former soldier in the Hungarian army, is wanted for questioning in the murder of an 18-year-old Jewish man in Nazi-occupied Budapest in 1944.
The rise of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party has ratcheted up debate about anti-Semitism in this country and focused attention on the seeming paradoxes of Jewish life here. On the one hand, a recent article in Germany\’s Der Spiegel described Budapest as \”Europe\’s capital of anti-Semitism,\” where Jews are \”being openly intimidated\” and making plans to leave the country. On the other, Hungary is home to a flourishing and multifaceted Jewish life that finds vigorous public expression in religious, cultural and even culinary ways, and also enjoys high-profile government recognition.
More than 1,000 Jews marched through Budapest\’s Old Ghetto district on Tuesday in response to a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the lead-up to Hungary\’s elections.\n
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