Fleeing fascists? No, we’re having a ball

TAMÁS BÜCHLER wants to shatter some illusions. The suggestion that Hungarian Jews are cowering in fear amid the rising popularity of the far-right Jobbik group is, he says, “nonsense”.

“We’re sick and tired of it,” says Mr Büchler, bemoaning what he feels are diaspora Jews’ attempts to paint his community as dying, crying and on the verge of fleeing from their homes.

We are sitting in Budapest’s Israeli cultural centre, where dozens come to take part in leadership courses, film nights, and kabbalat Shabbat services.

Mr Büchler leads Hungary’s Birth- right programme, sending bus-loads of young Jews on tours of Israel every year. Business is booming.

“We are by far the biggest community between Moscow and Paris. We are much bigger than Berlin,” he points out. “It’s an exciting c o mmuni t y. Yet whenever anyone visits us from Israel, Western Europe or the US, all they ask about is antisemitism. “My d o n o r s asked i f they should create an evacuation fund for Hungarian Jewry. But nobody is running away. It’s nonsense. To have a flourishing Jewish community in central or eastern Europe does not fit into the American or Israeli narrative.”

Mr Büchler is supported by the evidence in the capital. I’d arrived half-expecting far-right activists to be manning every street corner. In London, a rabbi had told me how his friend had found himself in a Budapest taxi proudly displaying a “no Jews allowed” sign. What I found could not have been more different: kippah-wearing holidaymakers in the hotel lobby, a city-centre full of Israeli tourists, Star of David necklaces hanging from the necks of passers-by.

Rabbi Slomó Köves tried to convince me that the low level of physical antisemitic attacks in Budapest made the city safer than London.

Is that wishful thinking? Time may tell. For now, Budapest should remain top of the list for tourists looking for stunning shuls and vibrant Jewish life.

‘Whenever anyone visits us from Israel, Western Europe or the US, all they ask about is antisemitism’