Address by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zsolt Németh at the Conference on “Jewish People in Hungary in the 20th and 21th Centuries” Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, 18 March 2014

Right Reverend General Secretary! Honorable Rector! Excellencies! Ladies and Gentlemen!

First of all I would like to express my thanks to the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary (of which I am a taxpayer member) for organizing this important conference and for honoring me with the invitation to speak to this distinguished audience.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
The title of this conference implies that we are expected to talk about the past and the present of Jewish people in Hungary. However, I have chosen to address this topic from the perspective of the future of Jewish people in our country. Because that is what I hold for most important in the context of our theme today: all signs encourage us to say that there is future for the Hungarian Jewish people, and this future is bright and positive.
It is almost a commonplace nowadays to speak about a Jewish renaissance in Budapest, the cultural and religious life of the Hungarian Jewish community is flourishing:  series of exhibitions, concerts, conferences, festivals and publications demonstrate the manifold aspects of the revival of this special part of the Hungarian culture.  It would be easier if we could say that it is but natural that this part of the Hungarian cultural life is flourishing, but, we all know that the situation is far from being that simple.
And even if I wish to speak about the bright future of the Jewish people in Hungary it is morally impossible not to speak about the past. The brightness of the Jewish future in Hungary cannot be addressed without speaking about the darkness of the past century.
It is because of the dark 20th century that we cannot just say that the flourishing of the Jewish life and culture is evident in Hungary.
•    Yes, we must speak about the Shoah, which was a Hungarian national tragedy, too.
•    Yes, we must speak about the responsibility of Hungary for the Hungarian Holocaust.
•    Yes, we must speak openly about the role of the Hungarian state in the process that started in the 1920s with the adoption of those horrendous laws of discrimination and persecution of the Jewish people in Hungary, including the massacre at Kamianiets-Podilskyi as a part of the Hungarian Holocaust.
•    And we must speak about the collaboration of the Hungarian authorities, before and after the Nazi occupation of Hungary on the 19th March 1944, with the death machine of the Nazis, and about the collaboration or indifference of a large part of the Hungarian society in the process that lead to the deliberate mass murder of more than half million of our fellow Hungarians.

Only if we speak openly about the failure of the Hungarian state to protect its citizens without any attempt to seek excuses or explanations for what there is no excuse and no explanation, only then we can speak also with pride about those who upheld the light of true values of the European culture: about those who rescued lives of many in that inhumane age. 

And if we speak openly about this painful past, then we can also make an authentic commitment – as a State, as a national community and as individuals – to the imperative of the “never again”. 

The government of Hungary has made it very clear which side of the history it stands. When we declared 2012 as a Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Year or when we remember the national tragedy of the Hungarian Holocaust this year we, the Hungarian state, made it very clear for everyone that the continuity in which we stand is that of the rescuers of lives and not that of the destroyers of lives.

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During the waves of crises of the last years we often speak about the crisis of values in Europe. And as a way out of this crisis the rediscovery of the Christian roots of the European culture is often referred to.  Actually, as we speak about the Christian roots of Europe, with the same breath we speak about the Jewish values in the European culture. Therefore, when we commit ourselves to the vision of a European modernization that is based on Christian values, we commit ourselves to the future of Jewish culture in Europe as well.  In this vision there is absolutely no place for anti-Semitism, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán put it: there is zero-tolerance against anti-Semitism in Hungary. Anybody, who makes an attempt to mix reference to Christianity and anti-Semitism belongs to the dark past of the 20th Century and has no place in the public life of Hungary.
I am convinced that the way out of the crisis of Europe is to build a sustainable future. Sustainability is often referred to in the context of our environment and it is right, as it is our common responsibility to protect our globe and preserve it for the coming generations. The government of Hungary is involved in several projects that address the issue of sustainable development – let me just mention our co-chairing of the UN open working group on sustainable development goals  or the Budapest Water Summit of 2013. But there is another, less frequently discussed element of sustainability, and that is the sustainability of our societies.
I am convinced that rediscovering the Judeo-Christian roots of the European culture help us to build sustainable societies.
And anyone who makes divisions in our society, for instance by strengthening anti-Semitic sentiments, destroys its sustainability.
Let me be clear: that is why I think that such a force is not only anti-democratic but it is also anti-Hungarian. Therefore, it is impossible for us to enter into coalition with such party. No way!
Instead of destroying sustainability, we are in an urgent need of strengthening the fabric of our societies, both in Europe and in Hungary. Our future is at risk, when irresponsible groups or those with evil intentions make an attempt to undermine the cohesion of our societies by sawing the seeds of hatred, racism, anti-Roma or anti-Semitic sentiments. We must counter these tendencies with all possible means for the sake of sustainability of our societies. Churches and religious communities can play an important role in helping our society to choose the way of sustainability and by strengthening the immunity of the people against these evil tendencies.
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There is an important element of social sustainability and that is the value of ethno-cultural diversity. Sustainable future is impossible without respecting, preserving and maintaining the diversity of cultures.
That is why speaking about the bright future of Jewish life in Hungary is in the same time speaking about the future of Hungary itself.
•    Jewish culture is an integral part of Hungarian culture, Jewish life is an integral part of Hungarian life.
•    Jewish culture enriches the Hungarian culture with an element of diversity which makes our society more sustainable.

The so called national values are often referred to as being a threat for diversity. I am convinced that anyone who thinks like this misuses the concept of national values. One of the menaces in our part of Europe is this mistaken concept of the homogeneous nation. It is a grave mistake. Only those nations that respect cultural diversity within themselves can have true cohesion and can be truly sustainable. That is why we promote linguistic rights  as fundamental rights everywhere in Central Europe and in Eastern Europe and throughout the world, and that is why we think that different forms of autonomy can strengthen both national minorities and majority nations as well.

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The bright and positive future of Jewish people in Hungary in the 21th century cannot be imagined without the community’s manifold ties the State of Israel. That is why I am glad that we have the honor of the presence, as a speaker at this conference, of H.E. Ilan Mor, ambassador of Israel in Budapest, who is an excellent link between our countries.
We often say that Israel is the 8th neighbor of Hungary. Actually, we have 7 neighboring countries but we all know that there are so many personal ties between Hungary and Israel and that there is such a large Hungarian-speaking community in Israel that can only be compared with Hungarian communities here in the Carpathian Basin.
We are also very pleased to know that many Israeli citizens applied for the Hungarian citizenship as well during the past three years.
That is why we are directly and deeply interested in the security of the State of Israel, including in the personal security of the Hungarian-speaking community there. We do hope that the new ongoing initiatives taken in order to revive the Middle-East Peace Process will succeed in creating a sustainable peace in the form or two-state solution.
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We know that sustainability is a concern of Israel, too, both in its environmental aspects but also regarding the society that is culturally very diverse. This can be a further point of contact in the promisingly developing Hungarian- Israeli economic and cultural relationships. We should enter into serious talks with each other on the issue of ethno-cultural sustainability as our common concern.
I am convinced that in this context Israel has more sensitivity to understand the challenges and struggles we face here in Central-Europe, especially our concern for the human rights of Hungarian national minorities in the – geographically – neighboring countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Let me draw your attention to an interesting coincidence: the abbreviation we use in the UN for the sustainable development goals sounds like this: SDG. But in this room many of us know, that this abbreviation has another, original meaning: the program of Jean Calvin was summarized by these letters: Soli Deo Gloria.  It is proper that I thank for your kind attention at this important conference at this Reformed University in the spirit of these words.  We, politicians and scholars, pastors and rabbis can do our best for working together for a sustainable future, a future that includes the bright and positive future of the Jewish people in Hungary. But we should never forget that our sustainable development goals – SDG – can be truly sustainable in the light of this other SDG: Soli Deo Gloria.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)