Antisemitism

Zsolt Bayer and Viktor Orbán

Orbán’s propaganda calls Ukraine’s President Zelensky a “Jewish comedian”

Viktor Orbán’s vicious propaganda machine is in overdrive.  Lately, it surprised me again. The recent attack on Ukraine’s hero President Zelensky is a new low.  Pro-Orbán media calls him a “Jewish comedian” and the ongoing anti-Ukraine propaganda, mixed with a healthy dose of anti-Semitism, is well received by Orbán supporters. The Hungarian Prime Minister never made it secret that he admires […]

by · April 9, 2022 · Antisemitism
Héjjas after the White Terror and in Hollywood

Héjjas after the White Terror and in Hollywood

(This is the last of a three-part series on Iván Héjjas the leader of the Ragged Guard) Héjjas’s brutality had become an embarrassment to Horthy by the summer of 1920, so the government ordered the dissolution of his detachment.  Héjjas took his men to the western part of Hungary, Burgenland, where he engaged Austrian troops and, with the forces of […]

by · December 7, 2020 · Antisemitism
From murderers to heroes

From murderers to heroes

(This is the first of a three-part series on Iván Héjjas the leader of the Ragged Guard) A conference has just ended in Kecskemét called “Of the brave and heroic,” a tribute to the Ragged Guard (Rongyos Gárda), a vigilante group whose military disturbances resulted in a plebiscite that returned the city of Sopron to Hungary after the Treaty of […]

by · November 18, 2020 · Antisemitism
Hungarian teacher protests new curriculum with fascist writers

New US documentary features Orbán’s institutionalized antisemitism in Hungary

Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations is a new documentary film just released in theatres in the US.  The film includes segments focusing on the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, anti-Semitic attacks in France and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s institutionalized anti-Semitic propaganda. The film director Andrew Goldberg says that anti-Semitism is on the […]

by · March 8, 2020 · Antisemitism
Mr. Orbán (middle) with Ms. Wittner and Mr. Szilágyi at Kötcse.

Orbán’s anti-Semitism is prime-time TV news in the US

On August 15th the PBS NewsHour interviewed Danny Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the US, during a piece on Israel barring two U.S. congresswomen, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both Muslims. Israel claims that Reps. Omar and Tlaib are anti-Semitic. The reporter pointed out that Israel has welcomed politicians in the past who have used anti-Semitic […]

by · August 20, 2019 · Antisemitism
Letter to the Editor on Fascist Souls and Father András Kun

Letter to the Editor on Fascist Souls and Father András Kun

I am grateful for having received a fascinating newspaper clipping from Tomas Korper, in response to a piece appearing in HFP entitled The Genocidal Priest — The Last Interview with András Kun. The letter writer’s father, trying to survive the Holocaust by posing as a military officer, was captured by Kun in Budapest and was brutally beaten by him and […]

by · July 18, 2019 · Antisemitism
Polish nationalist activist Sławomir Dul hangs an effigy of late communist politician Jakub Berman, captioned 'Jew,' in Lodz on April 30. 2019

Two examples of contemporary Polish antisemitism

Ever since I read Jerzy Kosiński’s 1965 novel The Painted Bird, I was freed from any misconception that antisemitism in Hungary is unique or somehow more odious than that appearing elsewhere in Central Europe. In fact, in some ways, Poland’s religiosity may have contributed to a particularly fervid form of hatred. In The Painted Bird, we follow the story of a […]

by · May 9, 2019 · Antisemitism
Fr. András Kun

The genocidal priest — The last interview with András Kun

We know from the revelations of the past nearly two decades that some of the men who joined the Roman Catholic priesthood were socially and emotionally maladjusted, and used their position of authority to abuse the most vulnerable in their community. There are also today a number of priests, sometimes younger ones, who not only subscribe privately to the most […]

by · March 11, 2019 · Antisemitism
Cécile Tormay

Antisemitism of the Orbán regime – Cécile Tormay’s statue and plaques

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán frequently talks about having zero-tolerance for racism and antisemitism, yet his government recently honored Cécile Tormay, a prominent anti-Semite. Cécile Tormay was born in 1877 and died prematurely in 1937 at the age of 60 in the picturesque village of Mátraháza where she shared a house with Countess Ambrózy-Migazzi. The Hungarian writer was an admirer […]

by · February 14, 2019 · Antisemitism
Neo-Nazi poster from a California University campus with Soros and Jewish American politicians opposing the Kavanaugh nomination.

Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from Hungary have now arrived in the US

The US media was somewhat puzzled when the Orbán government chose George Soros as their favorite enemy and thousands of anti-Soros posters covered Budapest. Many in the US didn’t know much about the Hungarian-born New York billionaire and Holocaust survivor. Surreal pictures of Budapest streets and metro stations plastered with Soros posters, some scribbled with “Dirty Jew,” spread in the […]

by · October 13, 2018 · Antisemitism