Eszter Guerrero, Adam Schonberger: The nationalist Hungarian Government is endangering Jewish people
Back in 2001 in Budapest,
we were a small Jewish students group called Marom, looking to organize a
Chanukah festival. We worked with limited resources, but had lots of ideas. One
was to set up a multimedia installation inside a synagogue with bright
contemporary graphics projected on the walls, intertwined with old black and
white Yiddish movies. But we needed projectors.
We reached out to the
C3 (Cultural and Communication Centre), created by the Hungarian Soros
Foundation, which gave us the two projectors we needed. This was our first
encounter with the philanthropy of Hungarian-American billionaire George
Soros. Today, Marom is a
place where hundreds of young people volunteer in programs promoting social
justice and democracy in Hungary, and where they
can reconnect with their Jewish heritage. We receive support from the Open
Society Foundations, along with other donors like the European Union.
But for the first time
since the end of communism, we Hungarian Jews are justified in fearing for our
security, given the Hungarian Government’s apathy towards Soros, and far-right
rhetoric. The Prime Minister Victor Orban has focused much of his re-election
campaign on attacking Soros, claiming he is trying to “flood Hungary with
Muslims” and putting Hungary’s existence at stake. His Government has even
reportedly started distributing a book by a known conspiracy
theorist disparaging Soros.
This summer, Hungary’s
parliament approved a law restricting the activities of NGOs receiving
international funding. The new law forces organizations that receive more than
$28,000 (£21,000) from foreign donors to disclose the personal data of all of
their individual donors. Consequently, it has become very challenging for us to
persuade individuals to donate money because it means their names and addresses
will be listed on a Hungarian government website.
As a Jewish group
working on social justice, we are not optimistic towards the current situation.
The Government’s well-documented campaign against George Soros plays
with obvious antisemitic representations from the 1930s, which has drawn wide
criticism. .. read more:
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