Risks to Jewish community growing, says leader

Budapest, November 13 (MTI) – Even before the current migration process, the risks to Jewish institutions had been growing, mainly due to the spread of extremist Islam, Andras Heisler, chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (Mazsihisz), said in an interview to the Friday edition of Magyar Idok.

“There was not yet any talk of migration” when the heightened security risks were indicated to the government at the Jewish Community Roundtable, Heisler said, adding that he agreed, however, with measures to strictly control migration.

He also said that anti-Semitism in central Europe was built on traditional, historical foundations and it is manifested differently from that in western Europe, where it is led by extreme Islam.

Physical attacks are not typical in Hungary, he said, citing his own experiences that the country’s reputation is worse than the reality. Whereas Jews in the Hungarian countryside were totally annihilated, now Jewish life in Budapest is flourishing, he said.

On the topic of the House of Fates, a proposed exhibition on the Holocaust, he said Mazsihisz resented that, notwithstanding their requests, the government had not accepted their proposal regarding the exhibition’s contents, and it is concerned that the exhibition’s message will not be credible. He said the solution was in the hands of the government and this process would take time.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Jesiva

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters