Jews in Hungary Enjoy Full Religious Rights, Budapest Leaders Assert

The 100,000 Jews remaining today in Hungary, put of a prewar Jewish population of 800,000 “enjoy full religious rights and complete equality,” Endre Sos, president of the Central Board of Hungarian Jews, declared here today.

Mr. Sos, a prominent Hungarian journalist and author, who is also president of the Jewish Community of Budapest, was one of three Hungarian Jewish leaders visiting here the first time a delegation of Hungarian Jews has come to Britain since the establishment of the Soviet regime in that country. The other members of the delegation are Dr. Imre Benoschofsky, chief rabbi of Budapest and Dr. Geza Seifert, an attorney and a vice-president of the Central Board of Hungarian Jews.

Mr. Sos and his two Hungarian colleagues attended this morning the monthly meeting of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, where they were greeted formally by Sir Barnett Janner, president of the Board and Labor member of Parliament. Later, they were tendered a reception attended by many of Britain’s leading Jews as well as by diplomats representing the Hungarian and Israeli legations here.

Illustrating the religious freedom enjoyed by Hungary’s 12 per cent remnant of its pre-war Jewish population, Mr. Sos said the country had 30 synagogues, a yeshiva, a high school, a Talmud Torah, an orphanage, and a Jewish hospital “of which we are very proud.” Last year, he said, 1,500 boys celebrated their Bar Mitzvah. He expressed the hope that a delegation of British Jews would soon visit the Hungarian Jewish community. Similar assertions about the freedom to practice religious rights in Hungary were made by Rabbi Benoschofsky and Dr. Seifert.

ANXIETY OVER RECENT DEVELOPMENTS EXPRESSED IN LONDON

Sir Barnett Janner, said that world Jewry, including the Jews of Britain, were “concerned and anxious about some of the recent developments concerning Hungarian Jews.” He said: “On the basis of visits to Hungary by Jews who were there recently, and from other reports, we understand that inroads are being made into the preservation of Jewish identity of a number of Jewish institutions which have been built up by the Hungarian community. We have been unhappy to hear, from time to time, reports about the sale of some synagogues, proposals for the sale of even more in Budapest and elsewhere, and of the planned removal of distinctive Jewish elements in the conduct of Jewish institutions.”

Another matter of concern, said Sir Barnett, touches on the need for some Hungarian Jews to leave their country to reunite with their families abroad. There are “thousands of families which have been broken-up,” he stated, “and a corresponding number of families in Hungary who wish to join their families abroad. It is surely in the interest of humanity that facilities should be given for reunion. There have been no such facilities since 1957.”