Judaism in Hungary - Today

Today

Anti-Semitism as well as racism towards the Roma population has been an issue in Hungary since the fall of communism. There was a peak in 1992 before the departure of the strongly antisemitic wing of the ruling MDF party.

In April 1997, the Hungarian parliament passed a Jewish compensation act that returns property stolen from Jewish victims during the Nazi and Communist eras. Under this law, property and monetary payment were given back to the Jewish public heritage foundation and to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Critics have asserted that the sums provided are trivial, however, and represent nothing more than a symbolic gesture. "The overshadowing of the Holocaust by a politically guided preoccupation with the horrors of the Communist era has led, among other things, to giving priority to the compensation of the victims of Communism over those of Nazism. To add insult to injury, an indeterminate number of the Christian victims who were compensated for properties nationalized by the Communist regime had, in fact, “legally” or fraudulently acquired them from Jews during the Nazi era. Compounding this virtual obscenity, the government of Viktor Orbán sought in late 1998 to ease the collective conscience of the nation by offering to compensate survivors by paying approximately $150 for each member of their particular immediate families, assuming that they can prove that their loved ones were in fact victims of the Holocaust", while offering 33 times this amount to relatives of the victims of the Communist era. The reparation offer was based on Law XXIX of 1997 so it was in fact passed under Gyula Horn's socialist-free democrat government (1994–1998).

The economic situation has been deteriorating since 2007, and extreme elements have established paramilitary organizations complete with Nyilas-like uniforms and armbands. At the 2010 election, the openly antisemitic "Jobbik" party received 16.7% of the vote. There has been some collaboration between Jobbik and antisemitic elements of the Fidesz party (in power 1998-2002 and from 2010) since the 2010 elections. For instance, the Budapest square named after President Roosevelt since 1946 was renamed, while the writer Albert Wass, sentenced in absentia for war crimes (for murders of Jewish women and Romanian civilian men in Transylvania in 1940) was honored with several squares and sculptures by the Budapest authorities in 2011. This is the same year, when Viktor Orbán's government stopped paying the $150 a year compensation (established by the previous government in 2007) to the 9,000 elderly survivors of the Holocaust in Hungary that are still alive.

Most estimates about the number of Jews in Hungary range from 50,000 to 150,000; intermarriage rates are around 60%. (On the other hand, only 12,871 people declared Jewish religion in the census of 2001). Hungary boasts a number of synagogues, including the Dohány Street Synagogue, which is the second largest synagogue in the world. Jewish education is well organized: there are three Jewish high schools (Lauder Javne, Wesselényi and Anna Frank). Hungary is also home to the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies.

Since the fall of Communism in 1989, there has been a modest spiritual revival of Jewish observance. In 2003, Slomó Köves (Chabad) became the first Orthodox Rabbi to be ordained in Hungary since the Holocaust. The ceremony was attended by Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as well as the President of Hungary. At the other end of the spectrum a Reform congregation on Anglo-American lines, known as Szím Salóm, has been established under the leadership of Rabbi Katalin Kelemen.

During 2011, 1,014,682 taxpayers of Hungary gave 1% of their 2010 taxes to religious denominations. The Jewish denominations received money from 7,849 taxpayers (0.77%): 6,001 people offered money to the Neologs, 1,120 to Chabad, 435 to the two Reform communities and 290 to the Orthodox communities.

The following table shows the percentage of Jewish taxpayers and their weight in the tax base among those Hungarian taxpayers who voluntarily directed 1% of their personal income taxes to go to a religious denomination:

In July 2011, the Hungarian government and legislature classified the religions into "recognized" (14 denominations) and "not recognized" (200+) categories.(In December 2011, the number of "recognized" denominations was increased to 31). Orthodox Jewish, Status quo ante (which is the same as Chabad since 2004), and Neolog denominations were recognized, while the Progressive "Szím Salóm" and the Reform "Bet Orim" communities fell into the "not recognized" category, therefore they are no longer in the table above, starting 2011.

Jews born after the Holocaust, i.e. in or after 1945, started to retire in 2007, and this causes rapid decline in the table above, since people on Social Security do not pay personal income taxes in Hungary at present.