Az alábbi cikk a HJAMODIA című újság angol nyelvű kiadásában jelent meg. The central Chabad institutions in Hungary celebrated 20 years of activities in the Hungarian communities, and especially in Budapest.
The Budapest Chabad shuls are run by Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, Rabbi Shmuel Raskin and Rabbi Shlomo Koves, with Rabbi Shalom Horowitz heading the local yeshivah.
At the main event, which was held in Parliament with the participation of over 600 government officials, foreign dignitaries and religious representatives, and headed by Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, certificates of appreciation were awarded to Rabbi Oberlander and his wife, who were the first shluchim to Hungary.
Incidentally, guards said there have never been so many yarmulkes in the Parliament.
Hungarian-born Nobel Prize laureate Professor Eli Wiesel arrived especially in Hungary for the event, and his visit was considered a historic event in Budapest, since the prime minister personally invited him to Hungary five years ago, yet he refused that invitation.
The arrival of Wiesel, who suffered the Holocaust tortures at the age of 15, was widely covered in the local media, and the prime minister sponsored the event, paying for all the expenses, including translators, music, refreshments and more.
The government also printed and distributed the invitation to the event.
Rabbi Koves, the leader of the EMIH Jewish Community and the director of the Open University for Judaic Studies in Budapest, who arranged Wiesel's visit, said the public was struck by the poignancy of a trip that Wiesel - then a liberated port-World War II refugee - said he would never make.
Wiesel was also quite moved.
REUTERS
(L. to R.) Hungarian-born Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Chabad shliach to Hungary Rabbi Baruch Oberlander and Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, at the special event in the Hungarian Parliament commemorating the Chabad activities in the country.
"The entire visit was very emotional for him," said Rabbi Koves. Addressing the Hungarian dignitaries, Wiesel did not mince words when referring to the country's involvement in the Holocaust and the need to fight racism and anti-Semitism today.
"The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference," stated Wiesel. "The people I belong to suffered because too many bystanders remained silent."
But he also praised the Hungarian people for their commitment to rebuild a "system of values" after defeating Communism, and urged them to "be strong in the resolve to implement [their] ideals."
Turning to the Jewish community, which has rebounded in the last two decades, Wiesel spoke of the significance of the event and thanked the "friends in the Hungarian Jewish community, Rabbis and members of Chabad for continuing a history of learning, [and] of medical and scientific discoveries. ... Your presence here among these lawmakers means a great deal to me personally."
Prime Minister Bajnai also addressed the conference, which was organized by the Hungarian Parliament's Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs, the Unified Hungarian Israelite Community and the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities. Bajnai saw in the Jewish community's strength a message for all of his country's citizens.
"We have a lot of reasons to be happy today, to celebrate, because the Hungarian Jewish community is once agaín vital and reviving," said the prime minister. "This makes the whole country stronger."
He praised the work of the Oberlander family, the children of Hungarian Holocaust survivors who moved to Hungary in 1989 to establish the country's first Chabad House. Bajnai said the couple played an "especially vital role" in the growth of Jewish religious and cultural life in Hungary.
For his part, Oberlander drew a lesson from pre-Holocaust history.
"In the part, there were Jews who assumed that if they would stop being different, they wouldn't be hated," he told the conference. "The Holocaust shows that conformity solves nothing. It made things worse. You must know that you are Hungarian, but you are also a Jew."
The remarks echoed a point made earlier by Wiesel, when he urged members of the Jewish community "whatever you do, wherever life may lead you, stay Jewish. ... Do not allow others to determine the quality of our faith."
Oberlander referred to a letter the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zy"a, wrote to Wiesel in which he urged him to "put memory into action, [and] be a living example of the beauty of Jewish tradition."
At the end of the event, the song of Rav Aizek of Kaliv, zy"a, Sol o Kokosh Mar, was sung, with the participants following the words from a sheet that was placed on each seat.
The morning after the conference, the Chabad Rabbis, together with Wiesel, met with Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom to discuss proposed legislation that would outlaw hate speech and Holocaust denial, as well as the need to strengthen Holocaust education in public schools and open Holocaust-era archives.
Later in the day, Wiesel he had a private luncheon with 25 Hungarian Holocaust survivors. Among the group were a few men who had been in Auschwitz with Wiesel. Afterward, they all participated in a ceremony at the Holocaust memorial.
In newspapers and other media outlets across the country, the visit was still garnering headlines days after Wiesel returned to the United States.
The event in Parliament was followed by a fund-raising dinner in the grand hall of Hotel Royal, with the attendance of politicians, high authorities, ambassadors, economists, bankers and managers of large companies.
Here, Wiesel spoke of his connections with Chabad and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, after which the Chabad Rabbis related to the crowd the history of Chabad activities in Hungary.
"The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference," stated Wiesel. "The people I belong to suffered because too many bystanders remained silent."
But he also praised the Hungarian people for their commitment to rebuild a "system of values" after defeating Communism, and urged them to "be strong in the resolve to implement [their] ideals."
Turning to the Jewish community, which has rebounded in the last two decades, Wiesel spoke of the significance of the event and thanked the "friends in the Hungarian Jewish community, Rabbis and members of Chabad for continuing a history of learning, [and] of medical and scientific discoveries. ... Your presence here among these lawmakers means a great deal to me personally."
Prime Minister Bajnai also addressed the conference, which was organized by the Hungarian Parliament's Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs, the Unified Hungarian Israelite Community and the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities. Bajnai saw in the Jewish community's strength a message for all of his country's citizens.
"We have a lot of reasons to be happy today, to celebrate, because the Hungarian Jewish community is once agaín vital and reviving," said the prime minister. "This makes the whole country stronger."
He praised the work of the Oberlander family, the children of Hungarian Holocaust survivors who moved to Hungary in 1989 to establish the country's first Chabad House. Bajnai said the couple played an "especially vital role" in the growth of Jewish religious and cultural life in Hungary.
For his part, Oberlander drew a lesson from pre-Holocaust history.
"In the part, there were Jews who assumed that if they would stop being different, they wouldn't be hated," he told the conference. "The Holocaust shows that conformity solves nothing. It made things worse. You must know that you are Hungarian, but you are also a Jew."
The remarks echoed a point made earlier by Wiesel, when he urged members of the Jewish community "whatever you do, wherever life may lead you, stay Jewish. ... Do not allow others to determine the quality of our faith."
Oberlander referred to a letter the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zy"a, wrote to Wiesel in which he urged him to "put memory into action, [and] be a living example of the beauty of Jewish tradition."
At the end of the event, the song of Rav Aizek of Kaliv, zy"a, Sol o Kokosh Mar, was sung, with the participants following the words from a sheet that was placed on each seat.
The morning after the conference, the Chabad Rabbis, together with Wiesel, met with Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom to discuss proposed legislation that would outlaw hate speech and Holocaust denial, as well as the need to strengthen Holocaust education in public schools and open Holocaust-era archives.
Later in the day, Wiesel he had a private luncheon with 25 Hungarian Holocaust survivors. Among the group were a few men who had been in Auschwitz with Wiesel. Afterward, they all participated in a ceremony at the Holocaust memorial.
In newspapers and other media outlets across the country, the visit was still garnering headlines days after Wiesel returned to the United States.
The event in Parliament was followed by a fund-raising dinner in the grand hall of Hotel Royal, with the attendance of politicians, high authorities, ambassadors, economists, bankers and managers of large companies.
Here, Wiesel spoke of his connections with Chabad and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, after which the Chabad Rabbis related to the crowd the history of Chabad activities in Hungary.
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