In June 2012, Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, an author of Hungarian descent, returned his award to the Hungarian Government. His decision was partly motivated by his view that the attendance of the Hungarian Speaker of the House at a ceremony which paid homage to “a fascist ideologist of the Hor-thy and Szálasi eras” was shameful. This happened only a few weeks after an antisemitic atrocity against retired National Chief Rabbi József Schweitzer in the open street, and a month after several Holocaust memorials in Budapest were disgraced over the course of a few days, including the sculpture of Raul Wallenberg, who rescued thousands of Jews during World War II.
2012 marked the 100th birth anniversary of Raul Wallenberg, honorary citizen of Budapest, therefore the Hungarian Government decided to declare 2012 Wallenberg Year. However, Hungary did not draw international attention due to the memorial year but to a growing number of reports on antisemitic, radical and discriminatory actions against the Jewish community. Various statements by Jobbik (The Movement for a Better Hungary), from comments on blood libel to a call for a catalogue of Hungarian Jewish citizens, the declaration of Hungarian actor and director József Székhelyi an “unwanted person” in Eger, the increasing cult of Miklós Horthy and other convinced antisemitic artists have all made a noise in the media and politics worldwide.
The growing number of violent physical incidents clearly shows the impact on “street antisemitism” made by the antisemitic utterances of Jobbik in the Hungarian Parliament or by the relativisation of crimes committed during World War II. In 2012, the media reported several cases where individuals suffered slight injuries because of their real or supposed Jewish identity. Furthermore, the proliferation of hate groups, speeches inciting for violence and assault at neo-Nazi mass demonstrations, and the military training of radical paramilitary skinhead groups are raising serious concerns. Finally, the fact that Jobbik is one of the most popular political parties amongst young people and that the camp of its sympathisers aged between 18 and 37 is rapidly expanding is anything but beneficial for democracy and social tolerance in the long run. Young people, who often lack a secure future perspective, are in-creasingly radicalised by popular neo-Nazi websites, such as kuruc.info, which publish illegal contents as the authorities constantly fail to close them down.
In 2012, the Hungarian Jewish community was not in deadly peril. Antisemitism does not affect the everyday life of Jews so badly as to make their situation unbearable in Hungary, and hence to result in an exodus of the community. At the same time, a process which started in recent years and reached its peak in 2012 makes Hungarian Jews feel each day that Hungary is not their home country. Admittedly, the government has repeatedly disproved this, even at the highest level, and has reiterated a clear statement that Hungary provides a homeland and safety for the Jews, just like for any other minority. Still, the Jewry will not be able to feel safe as long as antisemitic atrocities take place every day, in-cluding media-reported incidents, graffiti and disgraced cemeteries, hate speech in Parliament or on the bus, verbal abuses shared on social networks or personal stories that might never become public.
Antisemitism is not a problem of the Jewry but of Hungarian society. In Hungary, there are clearly more people who do not like Jews than those who are indifferent towards them or who are perhaps Philosemites. Precisely for this reason, it is really important to fight indifference and to take the words of Eli Wiesel: “Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.”
