BUDAPEST (EJP)—Earlier this month, European Jewish Press published an interview of Andras Heisler, president of the Jewish Federation in Hungary (MAZSIHISZ) in which he was questioned about his relation with another powerful Jewish organization in the country, the Chabad Lubavitch affiliated EMIH (Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation), which is often perceived as a competitor because of its many activities. The Jewish community in Hungary is the second largest in Europe after France.
EMIH’s Chief Executive Rabbi Rabbi Slomo Koves explains to European Jewish Press the groups’s fields of activity and stresses the importance of Jewish comprehensive education which, he says, ‘’can ensure that the community prospers and develops a sustainable future.’’ He mentions that many promising developments can be seen in the country. ‘’More people attend the synagogue from year to year and the institutional framework is in constant development.’’
EMIH offers a broad variety of popular educational programs at its institutions seek to bring people of all age-groups, young and old, closer to the traditions.
‘’Focusing our resources to support a religious revival of Hungarian Jewry, we have returned active religious life to 5 synagogues in Budapest, and 2 in the rest of the country, Miskolc and Debrecen,’’ the rabbi explains.
Speaking of the relations of his organization with Mazsihisz, the neolog (conservative)stream, Rabbi Koves says that despite ‘’significant obstruction and attacks,’’ EMIH ‘’has always looked for ways of cooperating with Mazsihisz.’’
‘’A number of Neolog synagogues are led by Chabad rabbis in Hungary at the moment and moreover a significant number of Neolog rabbis send their children to our preschool. We also have yet to mention the fact that a majority of the synagogues run by Mazsihisz use prayer books published by Chabad – EMIH.’’
Here is the full interview of Rabbi Slomo Koves :
EJP: What are EMIH’s fields of activity in Hungary?
S.K.: Since only comprehensive Jewish education can ensure that the community prospers and develops a sustainable future, I would begin by highlighting the educational activity of the Chabad Lubavitch affiliated EMIH (Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation). Having guided thousands of young Hungarians to an understanding of the mysteries of traditional Jewry, the Congregation offers a broad variety of popular educational programs at its institutions, which seek to bring people of all age-groups, young and old, closer to the traditions. The closely linked units of the EMIH school system provides a formal education of the highest standard and is therefore chosen ever more frequently by parents looking for a place to enroll their children.
The earliest level children are offered an education at our institutions is at the daycare and activity sessions of the Gan Menachem nursery and preschool, with the possibility of continuing their preparation for life challenges at the Bet Menachem Hebrew-Hungarian bilingual school, which couples an excellent religious schooling with an emphasis on a top-notch secular education in a unique fashion for Hungary.
Rounding out our education program, we are preparing to take a new step in September. Filling a decades-long niche following a long period of preparation, in the Maimonides Bilingual English-Hungarian High School will finally opens its doors in Budapest.
Part and parcel of these programs it is also important to emphasize our equal focus on unformal education as well. The flagship in this field is the Open University of Jewish Studies (Zsidó Tudományok Szabadegyeteme—ZsTSz), founded in 2003, which offers adults an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the world of Jewry in the framework of a comprehensive, thoroughly structured educational program.
The congregation has also published a number of books over recent decades, in addition to weekly and monthly journals, as well as successes in introducing a number of compulsory and elective courses related to Jewry in universities both in Budapest and across the country.
Similarly, the divinity classes given at Hungarian primary schools by the Congregation also seek to familiarize students with Jewish traditions, giving children from the majority population attending a chance—often their first—to get some insight on Jewry. Action and Protection Foundation (TEV), an affiliate of the Congregation, organizes lectures for high school and university students, mainly on hate speech.
Focusing our resources to support a religious revival of Hungarian Jewry, we have returned active religious life to 5 synagogues in Budapest, and 2 in the rest of the country, Miskolc and Debrecen. Plans to restart active religious life in 3 further places over the following two years are also underway. For this we rely on the work of 14 rabbis, no less, even as they coordinate the life of this community.
Since 2012, EMIH has operated a chain of eight pensioners’ homes called Olajág. EMIH is also mindful of the disadvantaged in society, establishing its own charity organization, CEDEK, in 2015.
EJP: What are the circumstances of the Jewish community at the moment?
S.K.: The reason for a special significance to be attributed to Hungarian Jewry among European Jewish communities is twofold. On the one hand, with numbers over a hundred thousand, it is the second largest on the continent. Secondly, it is the only community of Jews in Europe that is composed almost wholly of local Jews, rather than Jews who moved here over the course of the last decades. It must also be emphasized however, that on account of the rabid anti-religiousness of communism the community had lost virtually all its ties to its traditions, its own, and its predecessors’ Jewishness by the time of the regime change. For this reason, the most pressing task for EMIH is to offer the members of this community a foothold for a productive life still devoted to Jewish values by means of its institutions and programs.
EJP: How would you describe the relationship between EMIH and the Neolog stream Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) ?
S.K.: Variety has always been a particular trait of Jewry historically, with a dialogue of different points of view, living side by side. In the decades under Communism however the leadership of the one-party system wanted to have full control of the religious life it so despised, and so it unified religious life everywhere and shaped to its own image. The same procedure was adopted in the case of the Jewish faith, and the regime silenced all differences of opinion in 1950, forcibly absorbing all congregations into a single umbrella organization it had itself established, the National Representation of Hungarian Israelites (Magyar Izraeliták Országos Képviseletébe—MIOK).
Mazsihisz came about by way of practically renaming this organization after the change of regimes. However, the institution of community organization had significantly aged by then, the membership of the active communities had dropped, while institutionalized education in the field of Jewish studies was barely functional, and below par.
Despite all hardships, over the past decades we have witnessed a true revival of Jewry in Hungary. Scores of youth and cultural organizations have come into being, and a youth camp of international renown awaits ever growing crowds of young people.
Nonetheless, it is only natural that there are some in Mazsihisz circles who had grown attached to the prerogatives of the previous regime and feared to lose their accustomed monopoly and the autonomy that it guaranteed. Therefore, from the moment of its very inception in 1989 the Chabad Lubavitch movement or on the other extreme even the reform communities forming in the course of time, have had to build their bases in the face of significant obstruction and attacks.
This notwithstanding, EMIH has always looked for ways of cooperating with Mazsihisz. If this had not been the case, it is quite certain that the founding organizer of our movement in Hungary, Baruch Oberlander and I would not have had been given the opportunity to teach at the Neolog Rabbinical Seminary of Mazsihisz over a period of 15 years. Similarly, a number of Neolog synagogues are led by Chabad rabbis in Hungary at the moment, and moreover a significant number of Neolog rabbis send their children to our preschool. We also have yet to mention the fact that a majority of the synagogues run by Mazsihisz use prayer books published by Chabad – EMIH.
EJP: Does anti-Semitism occurs in Hungary ?
S.K.: Before I come to your question, it is worth noting that when in November 2012, on our initiative, Action and Protection Foundation (TEV) was established to protect the Jewish community, setting aside all differences of opinion, we invited Andras Heisler (leader of Mazsiisz) to participate in the leadership of the organization. He accepted the invitation and became co-president of TEV. However, he resigned from this position when he was elected president of Mazsihisz—presumably bending to internal pressures.
Returning to the question, it is clear that unlike the constantly changing current trends of anti-Semitism in the West, based primarily on Muslim fundamentalism or the anti-Zionism stoked by the extreme left, traditional anti-Semitic modes of speech and tropes preserved from the 19th and 20th centuries predominate in Hungary—partly on account of a lack of discussion regarding the views that led to the Holocaust.
Therefore, anti-Semitism occurs relatively frequently in verbal form, however it does almost never takes the form of physical atrocities.TEV monitors hate incidents continuously and publishes monthly reports. The latest research completed for the Foundation shows that the proportion of strongly anti-Semitic people in Hungary is at twenty percent, and two-thirds of the population is not anti-Semitic. The level of anti-Semitism is lower in western Europe, though the threat of violence and levels of fear of such violence is higher there.
EJP: How do you see the future of the community ?
S.K.: Many promising developments can be seen in Hungary. More people attend the synagogue from year to year, the institutional framework is in constant development, even as the infrastructure serving a tradition Jewish life improves. While a few decades ago, those belonging to the community typically pronounced the word Jew with a twinge of trepidation and often even kept the Jewish background hidden from their children, a positive image of Jewry that offers a strong identity seems to have taken root by now, and is felt as their own by increasing numbers. A wide social strata of young people who are proud of their Jewish background has come about, and they shall presumably bring up the next generation in a Jewish spirit. This is why it is my conviction that Hungarian Jewry will only develop further over the coming decades.