On our way home from LCJE Lake Balaton
By Tuvya Zaretsky, President of LCJE
My family received an unexpected education regarding the increasing anti-Semitism in Hungary today.
It is Saturday. We had a transition day from Keszthely to Budapest, before we fly home on Sunday.
We went up to the see the Buda Castle up on the hill overlooking Budapest, in the late afternoon. A crowd, carrying red and white striped flags, and some with the Hungarian flag, was gathering in the square next to the castle even as we were walking up. We followed the crowd to the plaza. There was live music playing and a stage with microphones prepared.
I asked one of the many Hungarian police on hand what was happening. Almost casually, he informed me that the “Nazis” were holding a political rally. I asked him to repeat himself, just to make sure that I heard it correctly. Yup, the Nationalist party was staging a political rally to protest the Hungarian move into the European Union and to denounce the “foreigners” who were ruining their country. I got the explanation from various people who I asked about the rally and exactly what the speakers were saying.
A Nigerian MBA student told me that there is a mounting hatred against the Jews in Hungary. The Nazis are merely the most direct in vocalizing the growing animosity directed toward the Jews in the country. I was angry, but my family didn't want to stay anywhere near the rally, since Jesse was wearing his camp Gilgal t-shirt that bears the Jews for Jesus logo and a Star of David.
As we were leaving the, the kids heard a guy who was dressed all in light brown clothes, singing a song. He kept repeating one line in Hungarian, which none of us understood. We only got one word -- it was “Auschwitz.”
It made me think about the relevance of our condemnation of anti-Semitism in the LCJE Conference Statement from Lake Balaton.
Tuvya Zaretsky