Summary

Summary

In our previous issue we wrote about the demonstration organized on the anniversary of the liberation of the ghetto in Budapest. This month we publish five speeches made outside Parliament by Péter Kardos chief rabbi, by Ferenc Mádl President of the Hungarian Republic, by János Martonyi Minister of Foreign Affairs, by Gábor Demszky Mayor of Budapest and by Gábor T. Szántó writer, editor-in-chief of Szombat.

The Hungarian Jewish Heritage Fund, in charge of the management of compensation cases, has recently fired two of their experts. This meant that the group of experts has been fired which has effectively represented Hungarian Jews internationally in compensa­tion matters, and informed Hungarian sur­vivors who are not very good at representing their interest, about their opportunities. Our article examines the background of this case.

Out of the estimated 80 – 100,000 Jews liv­ing in Hungary, only some 13,000 claimed to be Jewish in last year’s census when people were asked about their religion and ethnicity (though the answer was optional). What should the Jewish community do since it has come up that the state may decide about the amount of support given to different denomi­nations based on the data gained from the census? We discuss a recent debate.

Viktória Lugosi talks about how useful “village internet centers” are in Hungary.

Our feminist section, Esther’s bag launches a new series, which will describe the life of women psychoanalysts of Jewish origin. This time we can read about Lillián Rotter. We also publish an interview with Lea Polgár, writer, about her first book called „Álmatlanság” (“Sleeplessness”).

In our World section we discuss a phenom­enon all too well known in the international media: since the new Intifada has started atrocities have occurred against Jews in France, mostly caused by Arabic immigrants.

Our Israel section talks about how long it took for people in Israel to realize that usual psychiatric treatments will not help survivors of the Holocaust. These people who have suffered so much, need a special therapy.

In our History section a unique document is published: a letter by Zoltán Bosnyák, the chief ideologist of anti-Semitism in prewar Hungary, to a communist minister. Bosnyák was sentenced to death „in absentia” in 1946, was captured by the Hungarian communist authorities in 1951, who wanted to use him as an „expert” in the anti-Zionist trials under preparation. The fascist war criminal offered his services to the communist authorities in a lengthy letter. We publish the whole letter.

The title of the article by Ágnes Gereben is: „Soviet Jews at a crossroads – 1953”, the writing is a chapter from a book to be pub­lished by the author.

In the Literature section we publish a selec­tion of short stories of a younq writer, Péter Mandl.