The Hungarian right, antisemitism, and the foreign press

Jewish culture is thriving again in Budapest after a long dormancy. Before 1945 twenty-five percent of the city's population was Jewish, which gave the city its special flavor intellectually and artistically. Although the Budapest Jews fared better than Jews outside the capital, nonetheless about half of them perished. Those who didn't pretty well gave up their Jewish identity. This was partly the result of the trauma of the Holocaust and partly a function of the communist dictatorship, which, especially in the early years, was fiercely anti-religious. With the change of regime the Budapest Jewish community, about 100,000 strong, started to become increasingly visible and active. At the same time, antisemitism started to grow and intensified in the last few years.

Although the trend has been quite noticeable for some time it was only in the last month or so that at least two articles appeared about Hungarian antisemitism in important papers. First, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the conservative Swiss paper, had a long description of the growth of the Hungarian right and with it of antisemitism. Yesterday The New York Times published a lengthy article entitled "Simmering Anti-Semitism Mars a Vibrant Hungary."

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a conservative paper and its coverage of Hungary was definitely slanted toward the right. That is until recently. The paper's current regional correspondent has been highlighting the Hungarian right's shift toward the extreme right. He reports on antisemitic manifestations--from soccer clubs to paramilitary formations. What is especially surprising, given the NZZ's soft spot for Viktor Orbán, is that the recent article blames the party chief of Fidesz "who is consistently trying to please the very questionable nationalist and racist elements. In the interest of getting their support he utters opaque half-truths about Hungarian identity and history." The Swiss paper mentioned that Orbán made sure that he was seen together with Zsolt Bayer at the party's birthday bash. The two men were obviously enjoying themselves tremendously. Surely, says the paper, this was a deliberate move on Orbán's part to demonstrate to the extreme right that he is a friend and supporter of the openly antisemitic Zsolt Bayer. The article ends with this harsh assessment: "Those like Bayer discredit not only the party [Fidesz] but also Hungary."

The New York Times article is very detailed. The author is Michael Kimmelman, the noted art critic, and so the article emphasizes artistic issues. For example, Kimmelman talked to Péter György, professor of media theory and an art critic, about the lack of Hungarian artistic expression of the trauma of the Holocaust. According to György, "Hungary is a deeply traumatized society since the First World War and the Holocaust, of course.... After the early years of Hungarian Communism, to be Jewish was one's private affair." But after the change of regime "a new generation of Jews has emerged, which behaves like Jews." And, of course, this is something pretty new in post-1945 Hungary.

Kimmelman also talked to a historian, Tibor Frank, who described the situation in the context of longstanding prejudices that link Jews with national debacles like the Bolshevik takeover of 1919 and the years of communist rule, when many leaders were Jewish. Today those associations have passed on to the troubled socialists. "The Jewish issue is part of a larger reassessment of our history." Unfortunately, I am not at all sure whether there is any meaningful reassessment of Hungarian history.

Meanwhile there is a funny story from Hungary. Tamás Deutsch, one of the founders of Fidesz, has had a fairly stormy relationship with the fair sex. He fathered three children by his first wife and, while married to her, had an affair with his secretary. Another child came from that liaison. Apparently his wife would have put up with this, but when he took up with Ágnes Für, daughter of the former minister of defense in the Antall government, Lajos Für, even his long-suffering wife had had enough. They got divorced, and he married Ágnes (who had two children from her first marriage). Deutsch was so excited about his relationship to the Für family that he added the Für name to his own. He announced that he must be called Tamás Deutsch-Für from here on. However, father-in-law Für became more and more radical, until he became one of the founders of the Hungarian Guard. The family relationship became a bit uncomfortable for Deutsch-Für, and therefore in an interview when the reporter asked him what he thought of his father-in-law's politics he answered: "I love and respect my father-in-law, but we don't agree on this matter at all, and we sometimes express this. We will probably never convince each other." He added that it would be incorrect to draw any conclusion about his political activity based on his father-in-law's affiliation with the Hungarian Guard.

Lajos Für was outraged and responded in an open letter sent to a radical rightist internet site. The letter in part read: "Since Deutsch has been using our family's name, many people have rightly thought that it is useful to him politically. His shamefully incorrect comments about the Guard, however, show that the situation has reversed, and what used to be an advantage is now a disadvantage. So it would not be good for anyone if in the future anywhere, anyone confused what the name Deutsch and what the name Für represent." And he added that the openly Jewish Deutsch-Für is "a liberal wearing a Hungarian rosette." 'Liberal' is often used as a code word for Jewish. I'm curiously waiting what will happen to Deutsch's Für appendage after that.

Comments

[Dumneazu]

Whatever labels we could pin on Deutsch, "openly Jewish" is not one of them. He keeps his ethnic origins a secret, and within Budapest Jewish circles he is seen as something of a lost cause, hardly worthy of comment. He has never taken part in any Jewish community social or religious activity, spoken publicly as a Jew, or spoken up during any situation involving antisemitic activity in Hungary. As for Bayer... at least he has been known to admit he is a Schwabian-German Hungarian.

[Adrian]

Eva,

"Although the Budapest Jews fared better than Jews outside the capital..."

Are there any available statistics for the impact on Jewish communities in provincial Hungarian towns?

[Adrian]

"[Deutsch] keeps his ethnic origins a secret"

From his appearence I have always assumed he was of Roma origin, is there any credible evidence for this?

[Dumneazu]

No, there is no evidence at all that Deutsch is Roma. Back in the early 1990s, when FIDESZ was still a liberal party, Orban humself was often slighted by the right wing press as being, possibly, Gypsy, based on his facial characteristics. In most cases, physical appearances are not the best definition of somebody's cultural background.

[Adrian]

Dumneazu,

"In most cases, physical appearances are not the best definition of somebody's cultural background."

This is the first time somebody has ever suggested that to me in the case of the Roma. My Hungarian friends/family are long on why this sort of black hair is not gypsy black hair, and the nature of "cigany szag". As this thread proves I find it all hard to apply in practice, and think that the strongest strand of Roma identity is neither racial nor cultural but socio-economic, what we in the UK call the underclass.

Do you think there is a coherent cultural identity for the Roma that both they and the "white" majority would accept?

My frustration is that the Roma can never have real leadership as it is easy for ambitious Roma to adopt a "Hungarian" identity. This was never an option for Colin Powell or Barack Obama however pale their skins.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Adrian:""Although the Budapest Jews fared better than Jews outside the capital..." Are there any available statistics for the impact on Jewish communities in provincial Hungarian towns?"

Practically all wiped out. My family lived in a house with seven apartments in Pécs. The owners of six were Jewish. None of them came back.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Dumneazu: "Whatever labels we could pin on Deutsch, "openly Jewish" is not one of them."

I must confess that I took the information out of an English-language publication without really checking. I knew he was Jewish but I didn't realize that he tries to be secretive about this fact.

[Dumneazu]

"Race" is always a culturally delineated concept, not a scientific term. In Jamaica Colin Powell would be termed "Jamaica White" and Barack Obama would probably be considered white in Kenya. The idea of the "one drop of blood" racial rule is unique to the American expreience.

As far as Roma are concerned, some are dark and some are not, some dress in traditonal style, and some do not. Take the family living below me in Pest - originally from a Transylvanian musician caste family, they "look white." The rest of the residents of my building never call them "Hungarians"... but always "the Romanians" even though hey have been in the building since 1988. They are Seventh Day Adventists (which in Transylvania attracts a predominantly Roma congregation) so they don't drink or smoke. One son is a succeful bio-geneticist while the other does odd jobs around the neighborhood and begs a bit.

Another case is a well known jazz/avant garde Huyngarian violinist from Szabadka in Voivodina. His outwardly teutonic looks - blonde hair, fair skin - come from his mother. His father, however, is a rather dark skinned Roma who was also a professor of violin at the music conservatory, who taught his son to think of himself as a Gypsy, saying "Once they find out you are a Gypsy, you'll have to work twice as hard to get ahead in this world."

[Vladimir]

Anyone read the critique of the NYT article?
http://www.pestiside.hu/20080508/laughable-story-about-antisemitism-in-hungary-mars-a-vibrant-new-york-times

[Anonymous]

@Dumneazu

****As for Bayer... at least he has been known to admit he is a Schwabian-German Hungarian.****

Modern Hungarians are never loathe to 'admit' their Schwabian/German roots. Pre WW II, clearly they were. The VarangyNagyPapa's father changed his surname to a Hungarian one from a Saxon one. However, on other sides of my family, their equally names Austro-Germanic names (as were some Slavic surnames) were proudly kept.

In Hungary, Schwabs have a reputation for diligence and frugality, thought to lead to financial success.

Lastly, it would be hard for Bayer Zsolt not to 'admit' his German roots as his last name clearly means 'Bavarian'.

-The T O A D

[Anonymous]

Eva,

You persist in censoring my comments, I see.

Why is that? I'd love for you to explain yourself.

-T H E T O A D

PS Clearly you have flagged the 'V' word as spam. Must you play such silly games?

[Adrian]

Dumneazu,

***"Race" is always a culturally delineated concept, not a scientific term.***

I don't know if you'll still be interested in this cold thread, but this was important to me so I've been doing a little research.

Both geneticists and evolutionary biologists/psychologists use 'race' or euphemisms (population, cline) for it as scientifc terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewontin%27s_Fallacy

They agree that race cannot be indicated by the presence or absence of a single genetic/taxonomic feature, but it can be indicated by the presence or absence of a cluster of features. Sort of - tightly curled hair by itself is not a indicator of African descent, but tightly curled hair, very dark skin and a flat nose might be.
The most obvious use of this concept of race is in genetic medicine.

In the social sciences, I can't find anything of interest to do with race apart from the study of people's universal obsession with it. Darwin apparently suggested that the taxonomic differences between races evolved as a result of sexual selection, i.e. as a sign of fitness, rather than as a fitness itself.

As for Gypsies and Jews in Hungary, I think I have to agree with you they are cultural concepts, not scientific terms.

[Nick Matyas]

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