Vandals attacked the outside wall Hungary’s largest synagogue here last weekend, ripping off a memorial tablet commemorating the Soviet liberation of a Jewish ghetto in World War II.
A day after the attack on the landmark Dohany Street synagogue, a member of the ruling coalition in the Christian Democratic party condemned the vandals from the floor of the Parliament.
The chairman of the Jewish community, Gusztav Zoltai, termed the vandalism a “brutal act.”
The plaque was put up 15 years ago to mark the January 1945 liberation of a ghetto where tens of thousands of Jews perished.
Some categorized the assault as anti-Russian rather than anti-Semitic. Many Hungarians question the role of the Soviet army as a “liberator,” and monuments commemorating Soviet war heroism have been taken down and moved away, most to a special park.
A new plaque will be put up at the same spot with the help of a Jewish entrepreneur, Zoltai said.
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