A Center of Jewish Studies, the first in an Eastern bloc country, was dedicated Wednesday at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, under whose auspices it will operate. The ceremony was the highlight of the executive committee meeting here of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, which initiated and funded the Center.
Prof. Ivan Berend, president of the Academy of Sciences, said the new center was established as part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. Prof. Isador Twersky, director of the Center of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, will participate in its development.
“This is a real breakthrough,” Philip Klutznick of Chicago, president of the Memorial Foundation, said at the dedication ceremony. “The new Center of Jewish Studies attests to the viability of the Hungarian Jewish community and its importance in international Jewish life.”
The Center will assemble and organize archival material dealing with Hungarian Jewry. It will document Jewish historical, literary, religious, folkloric and social life in Hungary and publish monographs, studies, bibliographies and other documents on Jewish-related subjects.
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