The law of the LORD is perfect,
restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
(Psalms 19:8)
Csanad Szegedi,
former leader of the radical right-wing Jobbik party
in Hungary has transformed from anti-Semitic militant to practicing
religious Jew after discovering he had Jewish roots last year, according to Haaretz.
Szegedi had previously
used anti-Semitic rhetoric in all forums, including at the European Parliament. "This budget proposal reads like a
document written by [Israeli President] Shimon Peres,”
he once stated. “[It's] a budget that will make the
Hungarians poorer and the rich Jews richer.”And he accused what he called
"the Jewish intelligentsia” of doing harm to the "holy
throne” of St. Stephen, Hungary's first king, who is considered
the founder of the Hungarian state and the spiritual authority for the rulers
who followed.
“It
will take me some time to digest this information," he said when first
discovered his heritage. "What is important is not [needing to] know who
is a purebred Hungarian, but who protests like a Hungarian. From my standpoint,
being Hungarian means demonstrating responsibility for the homeland," he
explained.
However, reports have shown that Szegedi has recently become enamored with Judaism and its
traditions. In a report that appeared over the weekend in the German newspaper
Welt am Sonntag, it was disclosed that Szegedi has decided
to live as a practicing Jew. He observes Shabbat, attends synagogue, is studying
Hebrew and is even trying to familiarize himself with the Talmud, the code of
Jewish law. "He is attempting to observe the 613 commandments,”
the newspaper said, referring to the basic obligations of an Orthodox Jew. But Szegedi admitted that he was not always successful at this.“Kosher
cuisine – without pork, salami and the other things
that Hungarian cuisine is based upon. It will take me time to wean myself from
them,” the former right-wing leader acknowledged.
Szegedi's
heritage was discovered by political opponents looking for material to use
against him. It was unearthed that his grandmother on his mother's side is a
Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and his maternal grandfather
was also Jew-ish and was interned in a labor camp. In
fact, half of his family perished at Auschwitz.
Szegedi
investigated further and discovered that his grandfather had a previous wife
and together they had two children. The wife and children all died at
Auschwitz. After the war, the grandfather married Szegedi's
grandmother, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. The couple were married in
an ultra-Orthodox wedding ceremony but several years later distanced themselves
from religion. His grandmother chose not to speak about her past, although when
Szegedi's mother was 14, his grandfather disclosed
the family's Jewish past to her. But he warned her, however, not to reveal it
to anyone out of concern that there would be "another Auschwitz.”The grandfather was said to be
very pleased when Szegedi's mother married a non-Jew
"as protection," he explained.
The former Jobbik
leader has also apologized for his previous hate speech.“I
hurt other people. When I spoke disparagingly of Jews or Gypsies [or Roma, as
they prefer to be called], I was also harming children who had never done anything
wrong and may have talents that they could develop, but I blocked their path,"
he conceded. "You start hating until the hate becomes an aim unto itself….
At the beginning, it was 'the crimes of the Gypsies.’Then it was anti-Semitism, and
then we also started hating Romanians and Slovaks, because they had persecuted
the Hungarian minority [in their countries]. Ultimately you hate the whole world
and most of [the world's] peoples because they have not met your standards.”
The disclosure of his Jewish background distanced
Szegedi from many of his friends. “All
of a sudden, people who I thought were my friends stopped being friends,”
he recounted, and from his position as No. 2 in the Jobbik
party, he became the party's No. 1 problem, Welt am Sonntag, the German
newspaper, noted. Even his friends in the party did him no favors.“The
best thing would be if we shoot you so you can be buried as pure Hungarian,”one
told him. Another suggested that he deliver a public apology. "And then,”Szegedi said,“I
thought, wait a minute, I am supposed to apologize for the fact that my family
was killed at Auschwitz?”
He
has quit the Jobbik party and began searching for his roots. He spoke to his mother and
grandmother. He had discussions with rabbis and developed a relationship with
rabbis from the Chabad Hasidic outreach movement. He even made a visit to
Jerusalem with them to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum
and the Western Wall.