Summary

The April issue of Szombat begins with President Árpád Göncz’s writing, in which he rewiews the happy and less happy events of 1100 years of Hungarian-Jewish history. His writing is followed by János Gadó’s study on the history of Jewish schools in Hungary, probing the question of why the majority of Neolog Jewry – which always made a cause of Jewish schools – nonetheless tended to avoid these schools, once established.

The Hungarian Jewish community will récéivé a ridiculously low amount of compensation for the assets which remained unclaimed after 1945. The govemment and the Jewish organizations have a basically different idea of how to proceed from this point, with the former considering the issue basically closed with this act, the latter con­sidering it as a starting point fór further action. In her diary Anna Földes ponders over some recently published opinion polls; is it indeed reassuring if only one-third of the university students agree with certain antiSemitic clichés? It can be deceptive to look back on Yiddish mercly with nostalgia: proponents of Yiddish once were diametrically opposed to the adherents of Hebrew. The two groups were separated by a deep chasm, even while the Holocaust cast its shadow over them.

Time apparently stands still in the organization of Hungarian Orthodox Jewry; their recent general assembly reminded our reporter of Socialist traditions. Another report evokes a Passover in Munkács, a tradition which has sadly become something of a novelty for the Jewish remnants living in the once flourishing Hasidic centre. In his essay, Sándor Bacskai evokes the legendary members of the renowned Hasidic rabbinical dynasty, the Spira dynasty.

We publish Elie Wiesel’s story, “Moshe, the madman”, followed by a study comparing the original Yiddish text to the English translation of Wiesel’s The Hight. … claims that the grave accusations levelled against Gentiles have been simply edited out of the English translation.