My father, Arthur Schwartz, arrived in Canada 70 years ago as one of the 1,123 Jewish orphans that Canada admitted after the Holocaust. Born in Kosice, Czechoslovakia, in 1923, he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish working-class family. In 1938, Kosice was annexed to Hungary. Hungarian Jews were subjected to persecution and anti-Semitic laws such as work restrictions and the […]
Gábor Fináli, a rabbi in Budapest, wrote a fascinating essay in Szombat, a weekly Jewish community magazine, about what he sees as both the lack of a clearly defined Hungarian Jewish identity and the decline in progressive thought within Hungary’s Jewish community. It’s an insightful piece, considering that often the starting point for any discussion of Hungarian Jews is their […]
Michael Regenstreif is the editor of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. In the August 21, 2017 print and online version of the Canadian publication, he writes about attempts by political leaders to de-legitimize the media in both Israel, as well as in the United States. As readers of the Hungarian Free Press know, this important institution of democracy has been under […]
I have known the dark ages of Hungary. As a child, during World War Two, I experienced first-hand Hungarian ultra-nationalism and anti-Semitism. I managed to avoid deportation and murder in Auschwitz by fleeing to Palestine in 1943, along with 49 other Jewish children. Decades later, I returned to Hungary during the years of Communism. As a journalist writing for major […]
Gábor Vona has been trying to shift his Jobbik party away from the far right; he must have thought that one of the best ways to show Hungary and the world that he is serious about ridding the party of its antisemitism is by wishing a Happy Hanukkah to Rabbi Slomó Köves and to his Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation. “Allow me […]
Ottawa-based columnist Michael Aarenau published an op-ed piece in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin biweekly newspaper entitled “Campus Life: Bonding over Jewish victimhood” on November 9, 2016 in which he wrote: “Many of us seem to view any and all demonstrations against Israel as anti-Semitic. While there’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of the criticism against Israel is rooted […]
The Artistic Director of the Oscar-winning Son of Saul, László Rajk, gave an insightful talk at Concordia University in Montreal on November 4th. The event was coordinated by Professor Emeritus András Göllner, Founder of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter, with many partners from the university and the local Jewish community. We will publish videos of the well-attended talk itself, which […]
Katalin Bogyay is the Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations and on Saturday, October 15, the 60-year-old diplomat will be a special guest at a New York synagogue. Sutton Place Synagogue has invited Ms. Bogyay to their Sabbath service to give a talk entitled – Revival of Hungarian Jewish Culture & the Fight Against Anti-Semitism. No doubt Ms. […]
Synopsis Set in post-war Communist Hungary, in the fictional town of Hajdubékes, Never, Again is the story of seven-year-old Tomi Wolfstein, the son of Holocaust survivors who have never told him anything about their past experiences in the concentration camps of World War II. When the story opens, in the fall of 1956, the boy is about to start school. […]
Officials of the Hungarian government appear to be in the habit of misrepresenting statements made by foreign partners or entities during visits and discussions. Earlier this month, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) was forced to clarify its position on antisemitism in Hungary, after the organization’s views were misrepresented by the Hungarian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. And last year, […]
