Budapest street exhibition on Holocaust survivors defaced

The incident follows the release of a report showing a decrease in anti-Semitic attitudes in Hungary.

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(JTA) — An exhibition about Holocaust survivors was defaced in Budapest.

The incident was reported Sunday by the Hungarian Jewish community’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, the Action and Protection Foundation, or TEV.

According to the report on TEV’s Facebook page, unknown individuals on Saturday splashed red paint on 14 portraits showing Holocaust survivors with the youngest members of their families.

The Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, or EMIH, set up the exhibition of 24 portraits near the Madach Theater in central Budapest to celebrate Hungarian Jewry’s continuity after the genocide that nearly wiped out the community.

In a separate incident, TEV reported that unknown individuals painted a swastika in front of a Budapest synagogue on Wesselenyi Street, located five miles northeast of the Madach Theater, shortly before April 3. The Nazi symbol was removed shortly after its discovery, TEV wrote.

Both reports followed the April 1 release of TEV’s second annual monitor of anti-Semitic attitudes in Hungary, which showed a decrease in the prevalence of such beliefs.

In the survey, conducted late last year by the Median polling company, 31 percent of the 1,200 respondents displayed what TEV defined as anti-Semitic views, compared to 38 percent in a similar survey conducted last year. The survey has a 3 percent margin of error.

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