Hungarian anti-Semite discovers he's a Jew

[John Many Jars]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/14/158773637/leader-of-anti-semitic-party-in-hungary-discovers-hes-jewish

[Scuzz]

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

[Tim Partlett]

I was following Hungarian politics pretty closely while I lived there and Jobbik are racist. But this guy is not a "leader", "one of the leaders" or even a particular important person in the party. Seems like the article is trying to generate more interest by misrepresenting the truth, which is shameful for an organisation like NPR. The AP report which it links to describes him as a "rising star" which might be more truthful, but still a stretch I think. He was an MEP before he resigned and that's about a fraction as important as an actual member of parliament.

[Hugin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i9iTYe6tEk

[Jag]

I didn't know there were any Jews left in Hungary. I thought they killed off everyone.

[TheWombat]

I didn't know there were any Jews left in Hungary. I thought they killed off everyone.

When I was in Budapest a year or two ago, I went to the old synagogue there (a very impressive place). There is still a small community of Jews in the city, many of whom meet in apartments or what not; they still hold minyans at the grand synagogue I think but how often or with how many I don't know. Wiki says 30% of Hungarian Jews ultimately survived the war, and I know the community in Budapest itself wasn't thoroughly wrecked until relatively late in the war. Those wacky Nazis, with the world collapsing around them, always found time to make sure the lesser races were dealt with even when Stalin's hordes were descending on their hearth and home....

[Dan_Theman]

FWIW, my (Jewish) son just returned from there a couple of weeks ago. While I wouldn't say the community is thriving, it is certainly hanging in there. And yes, the old synagogue is amazing from what I could tell of the pictures.

[Tim Partlett]

The community is growing. I lived in the old Jewish district of Budapest (my balcony overlooked the Great Synagogue that Wombat visited) and there was a lot of Hebrew spoken and quite a few guys sporting payot. I ate a lot of Jewish/Israeli food, especially falafal.

I think most of the new community comes from families who lived in Hungary until the Arrow Cross chased them out. My Israeli friend was like that. He came back to the land of his father (his parents came too) and he married a local Hungarian girl.

Unfortunately I found relatively many Hungarians to be quite casually racist. Not in a nasty way, but just matter of fact. I was sometimes told by otherwise reasonable people that the Jews were buying the city (and the Gypsies were stealing everything else). They seemed shocked that I didn't hold the same views - "isn't it the same in Britain?!?"

That said, I don't think Hungary is about to become a Nazi state or anything (more likely the Republic of Orbanistan). Jobbik are small potatoes and much of their popularity comes from the less developed towns and villages in the ass-end of the country. Budapest - about ten times the size of the next biggest city - is strongly liberal. Jobbik does badly there and their campaign posters are routinely vandalised.