The Jewish community has often been conflicted as to how best to combat anti-Semitism in Hungary. Many of the community's "old guard" have long believed that protesting anti-Semitic comments by Csurka and others would only serve to give these individuals greater national exposure. Under the newly elected head of the Hungarian Federation of Jewish Communities, Peter Tordai, the community has become more active. Tordai has had several meetings with the Prime Minister voicing the concern of the Federation regarding the surging of verbal anti-Semitism in daily life, especially as manifested by Csurka. Orbán repeatedly appeased Tordai, claiming that he had everything under control.

Meanwhile, the community is assembling legislation that would provide a benchmark for what constitutes hate crimes and anti-minority incitement as well as criminalizing Holocaust denial and crimes against humanity. This proposal was submitted to Parliament on October 15.

Recent Anti-Semitic Incidents:

February 1999: Neo-Nazis again commemorated the "Day of Pride." Eight skinheads attacked policemen with pieces of furniture while shouting Nazi slogans such as "Sieg Heil." These eight skinheads were arrested; 30 others were expelled. As a reaction to this incident, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán promised to crack down on "neo-fascist rowdyism."

March 1999: On March 15, the Hungarian National Bank Holiday, the "Association for the Welfare of the Hungarian People" (Verband der ungarischen Volkswohlfahrt) held a public rally under the supervision of the police. Their leader, Albert Szabo, publicly destroyed a Star of David as well as a NATO emblem, which he referred to as symbols "for misanthropic inhuman actions enforced under the banner of Zionism." He also wished the Iraqi people well in their fight against "those Zionistic pigs."

On the very same day, skinheads, as well as fans of the Ferencvaros soccer team, yelled anti-Semitic slogans during a football match while the leader of the Smallholders Party, Joszef Torgyan, and the Minister of Sports, Tamas Deutsch, watched the match calmly in the grandstand.

July 1999: A major Jewish cemetery in the Hungarian town of Szombathely was desecrated. Nazi swastikas, the Star of David hanging from gallows and obscene drawings were smeared onto gravestones. The Hungarian President, Arpad Goencz, condemned the incident in an unusually clear comment to the press:

First, the desecration of a cemetery is a police affair. The perpetrators must be found and must be taken to court. Secondly, this is a moral issue. This was carefully planned, rude sacrilege which is being rejected by a vast majority of the Hungarian public. Thirdly, it is a social issue we must honestly face and examine in a wider context. In the fourth place, it is an international issue: How can the European public, which tends to generalize, harmonize such doings with the picture of a Hungary which wants to join Europe and wants to accomplish social democracy? Fifth, it automatically raises the question of how we can avoid such insinuation phenomena. They can only be avoided if they meet with clear and open rejection from both the state and the society, the entire range of the media which shape public opinion and from both political sides. Otherwise, we all universally have to take responsibility in front of the world and what is worse in front of ourselves.

August 1999: The Jewish community filed a court challenge following the publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They are still awaiting the results of the police investigation into whether the publisher is in fact violating Hungarian law by "inciting hatred" against a community.

September 1999: The Council of Europe branded two of the six parties in Hungary's Parliament ­ including the junior coalition partner, the Smallholders ­ as "extremist."

The National Police submitted an indictment to the Capital Prosecutor General's Office against Aron Mónus for publishing Hitler's Mein Kampf without permission. The Federation of Jewish Religious Communities in Hungary reported Mónus to the authorities two years ago for publishing the book.

Plans to revamp a Hungarian-sponsored exhibit at Auschwitz came under attack for failing to document Hungarian compliance with the Nazi murder of 600,000 Hungarian Jews. In solely blaming the Nazis for Jewish deportations and extermination, Jewish leaders accused Hungary of failing to confront its history. The Orbán government had originally planned to revamp the exhibit ­ installed in 1965 ­ because of its focus on the Communist victory over the Third Reich.

October 1999: István Csurka was the lone politician in Central Europe to praise Joerg Haider for his anti-immigrant Freedom Party's stunning performance in the Austrian elections.

In another affront to the 100,000 or so Jews still living in Hungary, right-wing politicians unveiled a plaque dedicated to the memory of the Hungarian royal police who died during the two world wars. However, the plaque made no mention that it was mainly these police who, after the German occupation on March 19, 1944, efficiently carried out orders to round up Hungarian Jews from the countryside. In seven weeks, they herded 437,000 Jews into ghettoes and then deported them to various death camps. Hungarian Jews are especially sensitive about the issue of war memorials because no administration here has ever built a monument to its murdered Jews.