Jewish writers and Jewish themes are enjoying a certain popularity throughout Hungary. One can now find a novel on the founding of the State of Israel in the local bookshops. The book, “The Seven Days of Avraham Bogatir,” by Gyorgy Kardos, tells the story of a Jewish peasant who emigrated from Russia to Palestine.
American Jewish writer Saul Bellow’s “Herzog” is a best seller here and the plays of American playwright Arthur Miller are performed in Budapest and the provinces as well. His work “Focal Point,” which deals with anti-Semitism was even successful in small towns and villages, the stronghold of Hungarian anti-Semitism.
The short stories of Sholom Aleichem from which the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” was adapted are also quite popular, “Fiddler” continues to play to packed houses in Budapest. “Moses” by classical Hungarian playwright Imre Madach, is also playing here and has been hailed the greatest success in Hungary in 50 years.” Soviet novelist Natalia Ginzburg and Ilya Ehrenburg’s works on anti-Semitism in Russian are also widely read.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
