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<\/a><\/p>\nPhysician and writer Gabor Mate participates in a meeting at the National Old Theatre in Krakow, Poland, on June 9, 2025. (Klaudia Radecka\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe one-sided, extreme statements of the current Israeli government and the domestic Jewish organizations and opinion leaders who dominate Hungarian public discourse do not represent our opinion,\u201d said the letter. \u201cWe are speaking out to say that these influential actors do not act in our name, nor do they speak in our name. But we are here too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over 300 Jews signed an open letter on their views, which was published online and subsequently gathered more than 1,400 total signatures from both Jews and non-Jews. It also drew a swift backlash from other community members in Hungary, where some 47,000 Jews live.<\/p>\n
The signatories include prominent Jewish Hungarians such as Katalin Kelemen, the country\u2019s first woman rabbi; lauded poet Lajos Parti Nagy; and Holocaust historian L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Karsai. Some, such as trauma guru Gabor Mate, live primarily abroad.<\/p>\n
The letter expresses the group\u2019s \u201csolidarity with all those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict\u201d \u2014 the Israeli victims of Oct. 7, the Palestinian civilians killed by Israel, the surviving hostages and the hundreds of thousands of Gazans experiencing \u201cbrutal destruction\u201d compounded by \u201cdeliberate starvation.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also laments that anti-war demonstrations have been largely banned in Hungary, where the press is also severely restricted.<\/p>\n
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier this year, Hungary announced it was withdrawing from the International Criminal Court \u2014 which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity \u2014 shortly before the Israeli leader arrived in Budapest for a state visit.<\/p>\n
The group said there was \u201chardly a platform or institution in Hungary that would dare to engage in debates and nuanced exchange of views on the topic\u201d of the Gaza war and the \u201copinions of the world\u2019s leading human rights organizations are being ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n
They alleged that the Hungarian government and mainstream Jewish institutions have stifled Jews who shared their views. \u201cInvitations have been actively withdrawn from Jewish speakers who do not represent the position of the extreme Israeli government,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
But they insisted their voice was necessary, concluding their letter with the warning, \u201cWe know from Hungarian Jewish history what the price of silence is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter adds to a growing number of local flashpoints over responses to the war in Gaza. In England, Reform rabbis were made to leave the stage of a hostage rally last month after they expressed theoretical support for Palestinian statehood. And Orthodox rabbis who signed a recent letter calling out the Israeli government ignited an international backlash.<\/p>\n
The Hungarian Jews\u2019 letter has drawn sharp criticism from some in their community. Gy\u00f6rgy G\u00e1bor, a philosopher, called the document a \u201cletter of hypocrisy\u201d in an essay in the Jewish magazine Szomat.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-proclaimed \u2018humane\u2019 Hungarian Jews have written their usual statement, the only real purpose of which is to cleanse their consciences by distancing themselves from the community they supposedly belong to,\u201d G\u00e1bor wrote. \u201cThey try to pass themselves off as the \u2018good Jew\u2019 whom the surrounding world is finally willing to love because they willingly adopt the narratives of their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s main Jewish organizations, Mazsihisz and EMIH, have not commented publicly on the letter. The community is preparing to launch a 10-day culture festival in Budapest that is focused on the arts.<\/p>\n