Renaissance
of Jewish Culture:
Bridging a gap in Hungary
Can Budapest's Jewish Summer Festival
help quell the city's anti-Semitism?
by Trine Schaaff,
Jerusalem Post 21/09/2005
The queues were long at the ticket booth of
the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest this month for events of the
week-long cultural Jewish Summer Festival that has annually drawn thousands
to the Hungarian capital since it was started by Vera Vadas, the festival's
director, eight years ago.
The aim of the festival, according to Vera Vadas, is to 'conserve Jewish
culture and traditions, and to serve as a bridge connecting the Jewish
culture to the non-Jewish population.' In this, it also means to work
against anti-Semitic prejudice.
Europe's largest synagogue on Dohány
Street, also known by the Yiddish name of Tabak-Schul (the translation for
Dohány is tobacco), is the heart of the Festival. The impressive building
very much shapes the face of Budapest, representing the country's big Jewish
minority of 80 to 90,000 Jews, of which 80% live in Budapest.
However, Hungarian Jewry is not as present in Budapest's everyday life as
one would expect, and underlying anti-Semitic prejudices are something that
doesn't just belong to the past.
Rosza Katalin of the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Hungary wrote
in an email that while she felt there was no organized anti-Semitism, the
non-Jewish population knew 'only little about Judaism'. Janos Gado of the
monthly newspaper Szombat (Shabbat), said 'Jews don't know their culture
either.' He explained that, for Hungarians, Jews are related first and
foremost to the Holocaust.
Other than that, stereotypes prevail. 'They believe liberalism is a Jewish
thing, cabaret life is a Jewish thing, things that refer to just an aspect
of Jewish life.' Over the last years, Gado observed what he calls a 'Jewish
renaissance' within Hungarian Jewry as a new movement of self-exploration.
The Jewish summer festival could be seen as part of this renaissance, which
according to Gado is a phenomenon mostly 'in terms of literature, arts and
culture.' He explained that not a lot of people were involved in the many
international Jewish organizations that had poured into Hungary after the
fall of the Iron Curtain. 'You will find many Jewish intellectuals here that
reject being defined as Jews.' But of these very assimilated Jews, he said,
many were 'very active in cultural life and feel more like Hungarians.'
Vadas wrote enthusiastically in an email that this year, 120,000 visitors
had attended one or more of the festival's events. She did not know how many
of them had been non-Jews. Her colleague of the Jewish Tourism and Cultural
Institute, Raymond Hauer, felt there was quite a big non-Jewish crowd
attending the Jewish events, especially people of academic backgrounds.
'They don't come because it is a Jewish Festival, but because our program is
interesting, and this way they also learn about Jewish culture,' Hauer said.
Asked about anti-Semitism, he said there wasn't 'anything material' to speak
of, and added: 'I get along with my neighbors well.
Scientific writer Magdalena Marsovszky, who specializes in Hungarian and
Middle European anti-Semitism, agreed that the Jewish Summer Festival could
help enhance Jewish identity, but was adamant it could not counter
anti-Semitism.
In a telephone interview, she acknowledged that violence against Jewish
institutions was low in Hungary. However, she explained, that for fear of
losing their identity in a globalized world, 'there is a cultural movement
to protect 'Magyardomâ' against foreign influence. The term 'Magyardom'
stands for a Hungarian ethnicity. 'Ethnicizing like this is very dangerous,'
said Marsovsky.
'The negative of the Magyar is the Jew,' Marsovszky said, explaining that
this was a constructed image. 'No real person could ever have all these
features. The Jew that exists in the head of the anti-Semite is a cultural
construction. As with everywhere else, anti-Semitism in Hungary is not only
directed against Jews and 'alleged Jews,' but against everyone who embodies
cosmopolitanism, urbanity and intellectualism.'
To counter this dangerous development, before it gets out of hand,
Marsovszky said, 'we need to strengthen the civil society, and increase the
dialogue between East and West.'
-
Antisemitismus in Osteuropa:
Ungarn und die Slowakische Republik
Die
unterschätzte Gefahr
Geschändete Friedhöfe in der Slowakei.
Antisemitische Hetze der übelsten Art in Ungarn. Das Gespenst des
Antisemitismus kehrt zurück. In den meisten EU-Beitrittsländern sind
Rassenhass und Judenfeindlichkeit immer noch an der Tagesordnung...
- Nur Polit - Folklore?
Der
Antisemitismus in Ungarn
Von Magdalena Marsovszky
Da dem Hass erfüllten
ungarischen Kulturkampf ein massiver Antisemitismus zugrunde liegt, der
jedes Mal wächst, wenn eine konservative Koalition das Land regiert,
muss ihm in dieser Arbeit auch breiter Raum gewährt werden.
-
Piroschka von
Hódmezövásárhelykutasipuszta:
Ungarns Weg nach
rechts außen
Von Magdalena Marsovszky
Die Medienpolitik der
"positiven Diskriminierung" ermöglicht es Abgeordneten vom rechten Rand,
rassistisches und antisemitisches Gedankengut öffentlich zu machen. Der
Hass gilt Liberalen und "Interkosmopoliten"...
-
Ungarns Premier
Orbán:
Zu Gast bei den
Rechtsradikalen
Magdalena Marsovszky
Regelmäßig besucht der
ungarische Ministerpräsident Viktor Orbán die Redaktion der
rechtsradikalen Hetzsendung ,Vasárnapi Újság' (dt. Sonntagsmagazin) des
öffentlich-rechtlichen ,Kossuth Rádió Budapest', so zuletzt Ende Januar
2002...
- Aus der Rezeption des Nobelpreises für Imre Kertész
in Ungarn:
"Geschmacksterror einer Minderheit"
Dokument der Kultursendung "Éjjeli Menedék"
(Nachtflucht) des öffentlich-rechtlichen Fernsehens am 22.11.2002, 22.55
Uhr, von Magdalena Marsovszky aus dem Ungarischen übersetzt, leicht
redigiert und mit kurzen Kommentaren versehen... -
Wahlkampf:
Göttliches Ungarn
Vor den
Parlamentswahlen am Wochenende bestimmen nationalistische Parolen die
politische Auseinandersetzung in Ungarn. -
Zwischen Wahrheitsfindung und Amnesie:
Das ‚Haus des Terrors’ in Budapest
Das neue-alte Haus der Dunkelheit war am Vorabend
des zweiten Gedenktages der kommunistischen Opfer, dem 24. Februar 2002,
Licht überflutet...
- In Ungarn erhalten völkische
Propagandisten rasanten Zulauf:
Jenseits von allen
Ufern
Von Sanktionen der EU gegen
Österreich ist schon lange nicht mehr die Rede, und darüber ist
vermutlich niemand so erleichtert wie der ungarische Ministerpräsident
Victor Orbán...
- NNP - Ungarn:
Neue rechtsradikale Partei gegründet
Mit dem Namen "Nationale Volkspartei"
(NNP) wurde in Ungarn eine neue rechtsradikale Partei gegründet...
- Erez Hagar:
Juden
in Ungarn Erst
der Beginn des 15.Jahrhunderts brachte eine Reihe Verfolgungen von Juden
mit sich, die in die 'üblichen' Anschuldigungen des Ritualmordes,
Hostien-Schändungen und Brunnenvergiftungen ausarteten, was sich
vereinzelt über die Jahrhunderte hinweg wiederholte...
- Report and Documentation:
Anti-Semitic Discourse in Hungary
"I have been planning to write this review for one and a half years. I
wanted to wait until anti-Semitism in Hungary – this national malaria,
scurvy, epilepsy, anthrax – subsides for a little while”,
philosopher Miklós Tamás Gáspár began his article published in the
daily Népszabadság on November 17, 2001, under the title Új zsidó
nacionalizmus
(New Jewish Nationalism). The article, a review of a book on Israel by
fellow philosopher György Tatár, goes on to say: “After all, it is
not fair to criticize people, whatever faults I think they have, who are
being threatened, who are visibly in danger. Many accounts show that the
number of (anti-Semitic) incidents in the street, at work, at
restaurants has suddenly increased. I have also witnessed such incidents
myself. Not to mention the incitement of the right wing and far-right
media, now tolerated, now supported by the government. But I’m waiting
in vain. The anti-Jewish instigation does not seem to subside so soon,
its fervor won’t diminish."
hagalil.com 14-10-2005 |