Sidelights of the Budapest Commemoration

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(Reporting from Hungary)

Last week’s memorial assembly in Budapest was an outstanding event. Jews of Hungary, Hungarian Jews who settled in other countries and leaders of the Hungarian people met to remember the victims of the Holocaust in Hungary and to speak of its causes and the lessons to be learned.

In this and in following articles we will write about side events of the memorial assembly, such as the unveiling of a memorial tablet in the building of the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest, which in 1944 was turned by the Germans into a concentration camp for Jews, and the visit of a delegation of Hungarian Jews, living abroad, to Holocaust memorials in Budapest, including the statues erected in honor of Raoul Wallenberg and the Swiss Consul Charles Lutz, both of whom saved very large numbers of Jews.

We will also write about Jewish personalities from abroad, who took an active part in the memorial assembly.

Of Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, it can be truly said: “He came, spoke and conquered.” He stayed for less than three days in Budapest and during that short period spoke in several places.

On Shabbat (Parashat Pinhas) he preached at the Kazincy Shul and spoke at Shalosh Se’udot at the Forum Hotel. The following day he addressed the memorial assembly and spoke at the receptions held in Budapest’s City Hall and at the headquarters of the Jewish community.

Wherever and whenever he spoke, he said the right words appropriate to the time and place.

At the memorial assembly he spoke in Hebrew, Yiddish and also in English, for the benefit of visitors from the U.S. He said: “Tomorrow is the 4th of July. This is not only your holiday— the United States Independence day– but also a great day for Israelis. On that day, 18 years ago,t he Israel AIr force leiberated the hostages, who were held in Entebbe.”

Rabbi Lau then spoke of the selections- a la Auschwitz — of the passengers by the hijackers and explained the significance of the Israeli action. “If there had been a Jewish state half a century ago, the situation for our people in Europe would have been different.”

Members of Mahattan’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue regard Hazzan Joseph Malovany as their cantor. This is true, but he is also the Hazzan of many other congregations.

Hazzan Malovany led the Shabbat prayers and blessed the the new month at the Kazinczy Shul. He sang from Psalm 16 at the memorial assembly and after the memorial candles were lit chanted the Kel Mal and recited Kaddish.

Every one was deeply moved by his Kel Male. What a voice! What feeling!

Hazzan Malovany is a descendant of Rabbi Yaakov Emden and his father the Hakham Zvi. The latter was a grandson of Rabbi Efraim HaKohen (author of responsa Shaar Efraim) who was rabbi of Buda (which in the 19th century was united with Obuda and Pest to form Budapest).

The choice of Malovany to chant the Hazkara in Budapest was thus not only proper from the cantorial point of view, but also on account of Yihus Avot.

Edward Teller, the famous nuclear physicist, is a native of Budapest. Though he is 86 years of age and walks with great difficulty he came from San Francisco to attend the memorial assembly.

He was honored at the reception tendered by the Jewish community and at a special reception given in his honor by the Emanuel Foundation. “Teller is a mental giant. It is G-d who gives wisdom to man, as we say thrice daily: Atta Honen,” Hazzan Malovany said at that reception. “The Kaliver Rebbe composed a special Niggun for Atta Honen.”

Teller has always been a strong supporter of the right wing in Israel. I asked him what he thought of the Israeli government’s agreement with the PLO.

“I am worried,” he answered. “I do not like Yasir Arafat!”

Dr. Israel Singer, the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, also spoke at the memorial assembly. Referring to recent condemnations of anti-Semitism by Hungarian leaders, he exclaimed that if such declarations had been made 50 years ago, there would have been no need for memorial rallies. Today racism and anti-Semitism raise again their ugly head in various countries and leaders must speak out before it is too late.

Singer is persona non grata in Hungary. All doors are open to him. He is discreet. “This cannot yet be published,”he could say. I hope he doesn’t mind my “revealing” that on the morrow of his arrival in Budapest, he went with his family for a day to Pressburg to visit the tomb of the Hatam Sofer. The memorial assembly opened with the singing of the Hungarian national anthem and closed with the HaTikva. Singing the HaTikva, you could not help remembering that not far from the place where the memorial assembly was held once stood the house in which Theodor Herzl was born.

The Jewish Press, Friday, July15, 1994