Book focuses on Hungarian anti-Semitism

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BUDAPEST, Oct. 18 (JTA) — The B’nai B’rith chapter here has published a book documenting recent anti-Semitic discourse in the Hungarian media and other public forums.

The book details work carried out throughout 2000 by its Jewish Documentation Center, an office founded in 1999 to monitor and document Hungarian Jewish life.

The center’s responsibilities also include monitoring and creating a data base of racist and anti-Semitic acts and statements in the Hungarian media and activities of far-right organizations.

The book, published in English and Hungarian, includes anti-Semitic writings that appeared in two far-right weeklies — Magyar Forum and Magyar Demokrata — as well as similar comments voiced over Hungarian Public Radio.

B’nai B’rith intends to publish similar reports, possibly annually if its financial resources permit, Laszlo Koranyi, a past president of the group, told JTA.

“This book makes it clear that anti-Semitic discourse is alive in many segments of contemporary Hungarian society,” historian Andras Gero said at a Budapest news conference at which the book was introduced.

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