Description

The history of Hungarian-Jewish relations is that of contradictions and complications, of a nearly ideal co-existence, nay of mutual assimilation, but also of cruel rejection on the part of the non-Jewish majority.

Ultimately, neither the good nor the bad prevailed: to be a Hungarian was beneficial to many Jews and tragically harmful to many other Jews. On the other hand, it can be asserted with confidence that the historical presence of the Jews in their midst was more beneficial than not to the non-Jewish majority. Unfortunately, many non-Jews perceived, and even today perceive the Jewish presence as a catastrophe.

In his presentation, Prof. Deák will illustrate Jewish-Hungarian relations or rather, Christian-Hungarian and Jewish-Hungarian relations with examples taken from history, moving from two separate existences in the feudal world to the fervent embrace of the idea of mutually beneficial co-operation in a modernizing society during the 19th century. What followed in the first half of the 20th century were the societal rejection of Jewish-non-Jewish symbiosis and the wholesale expropriation as well as the partial extermination of the Hungarian Jews. Today’s not-so-secret tension between non-Jews and what is left of the Jewish community is a reflection of society’s inability to cope with the legacy of the Holocaust.