SZOMBAT („Shabbat”) is a Jewish political and cultural magazine. For more information click here.
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July 2008 issue
From the End till a New Beginning Jewish identity in Hungary stands as the focal point of works by 24 of the country’s best authors in Contemporary Jewish Writing in Hungary: An Anthology. Heureka! I must begin with a confession, a strange confession perhaps, but a candid one. From the moment I stepped on the…
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Szarvas The Magical Place
Zsuzsa Fritz (Program Director) The Lauder-Joint International Jewish Youth Camp was established in 1990 by the Lauder Foundation and by the American Joint in order to give a great Jewish summer experience and a long-lasting impact on the Jewish identity of the youngsters who had just started to discover their roots in the Eastern-Central –…
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The Crunch of Empty Boots
Gábor T. Szántó: The Crunch of Empty Boots Snow. Flakes of snow. Falling, falling, flakes of snow. Marci presses his nose against the glass. Panting, Santa Claus binds the skis onto his boots. He struggles to move in his thick red quilted coat and trousers, his red cap on his head; he’s…
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I m beginning to understand the system s logic
I’m beginning to understand the system’s logic Interview with András Heisler, President of the Alliance of the Jewish Congregations of Hungary János Gadó
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Historical Commissions and Reconciliation
What Hungarian Jews Need to Learn Ágnes Peresztegi This paper was delivered at The International Conference on Confronting History: The Historical Commissions of Inquiry that discussed the various historical commissions appointed by different governments to deal with the role of their country during the Second World War. Although Hungary failed to establish such a commission…
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Heureka!
The speech was delivered in Stockholm at the Nobel Prize ceremony, in October 2002 Imre Kertész I must begin with a confession, a strange confession perhaps, but a candid one. From the moment I stepped on the airplane to make the journey here and accept this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, I have been feeling…
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The lost contract
Europe and her Jews (or vice-versa) András Kovács The relationship between Europe and her Jews has deteriorated. Complaints of a new European anti-Semitism are voiced increasingly more loudly and ever more often on various Jewish forums – which then re-surface in European public discourse with the mediation of Israeli and North American media, often…
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From the End till a New Beginning
Contemporary Jewish Writing in Hungary Eszter Breuer Jewish identity in Hungary stands as the focal point of works by 24 of the country’s best authors in Contemporary Jewish Writing in Hungary: An Anthology. This book published by the University of Nebraska Press is the latest volume in a series of books on Jewish writing…
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Summary
Summary Gábor T. Szántó’s editorial Alternative” describes the new elements of the Jewish cultural scene in Budapest: the Jewish theatre, the Keset conference (the Hungarian Limmud) and a new cafe called „Sirály” (Seagull): „Here in Sirály they are going to have a small Jewish library upstairs, as well as a reading room, and they have…
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Summary
Summary In connection with the “revolution” at Kossuth tér (demonstration outside the Parliament) János Gadó claims: ..Through the aggressive street demonstrations, the opposition reflects a very bad picture of itself, not of the government. All this is a blow at democracy, because at the time of a lack of confidence and an economic crisis, each…
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Summary
Summary Along with the rest of the Hungarian media Szombat deals with the upcoming local elections. „Újlipótváros: a place where even right wing representatives are Jewish” is the title of an article by Peter Szego, who interviewed three candidates from Budapest’s 13th district. The three interviewees: David Merker (liberal), György Szabó (right wing), and Julianna…
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Summary
Summary The first section of this month’s issue of Szombat is dominated by the Israel-Lebanon conflict: two different viewpoints are presented. György Konrád claims in his essay under the title ’’What may come after the rockets? More rockets?”: ”Perhaps radical Islamists find the existence of the state of Israel unacceptable. But why should thinking people…
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Summary
Summary In our June issue, two of our colleagues publish analysises of the parliamentary elections and their consequences in Hungary and in Israel. „In the April of 2006 the elections created a situation which changed the stabilizing force of the Hungarian political system altogether. It was the first time that government parties managed to win…
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Summary
Summary János Gadó’s editorial deals with the elections in Hungary: „The political right wing in Hungary has stirred and – as for anti-Semitic views – it is carefully starting to disconnect from the extreme right which – along with its traditional version – has acquired an updated version of anti-Semitism. The political left is still…
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Summary
Summary Parliamentary elections will be held both in Israel and Hungary. Attila Novák warns that the feeling of fear spreading among Hungarian Jews interprets the word ’’solidarity” as an excluding one. János Gadó wrote about the murdered young Jewish Frenchman Ilan Halimi, as well as about the background of the murder. In connection with the…
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Summary
Summary In his essay „Europe and Israel” the writer György Konrád discusses how modern Europe needs to be responsible for the reborn Jewish state in the Middle East, and puts the question: „The most recent changes, the radical way of thinking of the new Iranian president, the electoral victory of Hamas, the almost certainly coordinated…
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Summary
Summary In his editorial (Under reconstruction…the liberation keeps going undisturbed) János Gadó writes about the transformation of one-time left-wing ideologies: „In 1989, in the euphoric moments of the lull of Communism, for a moment it seemed that history had ended, and the light between different interpretations of the world has come to an end, and…
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Summary Péter Szegő’s editorial deals with the danger the Iranian president’s public statement means: he denied the Holocaust and called for the destruction of Israel. Szegő believes that “if Iran should become a nuclear power, it will be unpredictable whether they will attack Israel. ” Pál Várnai interviewed Peter Popper, the renowned psychologist. Commenting on…
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Summary
Summary Our editorial deals with the challenge represented by Hungarian citizens who want to be represented as Jewish national minority; by the Jewish Community Forum (Zsidó Közösségi Fórum), and by the new religious community: United Hungarian Jewish Congregation (Egyesült Magyarországi Izraelita Hitközség), led by Chabad rabbis. The editorial asks whether the autarchy of the Alliance…
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Summary
Summary Attila Novák’s editorial was inspired by a short trip to Tunisia: he comments on the relationship between the West and Islam: „The words of Memmi become too quiet next to the multicultural battle cries which only take what it finds pleasant in different civilizations and cultures, and only those things which are easy to…
