Anti-Semitic Hungarian Leader Has Jewish Roots

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception


An incredible story hits the news.

People believed to be beyond redemption are more like the rest of us than we think. Csanad Szegedi’s journey as the descendant of Holocaust survivors is such a story.

Hungarian politician Szegedi had a history of making anti-Semitic statements to media. Comments on the “Jewishness” of Hungary’s political class and accusations that Jews were “buying up” the country, were made while he was a prominent leader of the Jobbik Party, one of a few blatantly anti-Semitic movements in Europe. One presidental candidate once publicly referred to Israeli Jews as “lice-infested, dirty murderers.”

Usurprising that given the environment, Szegedi went to great lengths to hide his Jewish roots after learning of them in 2010. In a taped conversation with a convicted felon, Szegedi was  blindsided when the other man offered documents proving Szegedi's Jewish heritage through his mother’s line. His grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor, and his grandfather survived the forced labor camps.

Initially, Szegedi tried to cover up his geneaology by offering to pay the convict to stay quiet. Instead, the tape was passed to members of the Jobbik party in order to undermine Szegedi’s credibility and it worked. He has been forced to resign from the majority of his party positions after going public with his story in August.

The Jobbik party now claims he had lied about his background, but Szegedi tells a different story.

Szegedi claims that after WWII, his grandparents hid their Jewish heritage to avoid further persecution. They were the only survivors in their extended families and there was no way for him to have known. He was raised in the Presbyterian faith and not until December 2011, Szegedi says, did his grandmother speak to him honestly about her experiences in Auschwitz.

He has had a crisis of conscience ever since and issued a public apology for  past statements that offended the Jewish community and pledged to visit Auschwitz to pay his respects. He also met with a prominent orthodox Rabbi in the Jewish Hungarian community.

Rabbi Slomo Koves told the Associated Press that the meeting was stressful, but “[a]s a rabbi … it is my duty to receive every person who is in a situation of crisis and especially a Jew who has just now faced his heritage.”

It’s been a challenging time for Szegedi, professionally and personally, he has been abandoned by his colleagues and his personal assistant since his background became public. But it is also an opportunity to grow.

Rabbi Koves told the Wall Street Journal, “I wish for him that he be able to redeem the past years. He can do that best, if, apart from getting to know his own roots, he does everything in his power to keep others from being led astray, like he had been.”



Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/anti-semitic-hungarian-leader-uncovers-jewish-roots.html#ixzz272mgVM7w