I, a Hungarian Jew (or Jewish Hungarian) perfectly concur with C.F-B's
indignation over the stupid representation of Hungarian music and culture
by some German anti-expert and will definitely a missive to Delta Music
expressing my amazement about such a high degree of incompetence. Yet the
second letter by the same fellow Hungarian, though it contains many good
points, raises some questions.
Hungarian antisemitism: It is true that many other countries have
horrible records of extermination of Jews but Hungary's record is less
than flawless. I only quote a few cases by memory without rechecking
(though on my desk I have N. Katzburg's Hebrew language book on
antisemitism in Hungary). When Buda was reconquered from the Turks, the
liberators massacred the Jews living there (there remains were found when
Hilton was built on the Castle Hill). Nagy Lajos banned Jews from
Hungary. Even though Jews were very generous donors when the 1848 Freedom
War started, there was a progrom in Pozsony (Bratislava, Pressburg) and
Jews were not admitted among the ranks of the National Guard (nemezeto"r)
till Petofi raised his voice and strongly protested against this
discrimination. Around the turn of the century there was an Antisemitic
Party [sic] in Hungary, and this century, the record is nothing to be
proud of. The brutality of Hungarian Nazis often passed that of the SS.
Now, what I have briefly mentioned is not a characterization of
the Hungarian nation. The Arpad dynasty treated the Jews quite well, IV
Bela relied, among others, on Jewish talent to rebuild the country after
the Mongolian invasion and treated them well. At the end of the last
century, Jews had a reasonably good life in Hungary. But I feel it is a
disservice to all the good and fair Christian Hungarians to conceal the
bad element, as it is to decent Jews to deny that there were Jewish
criminals as well. All nations have their good and bad elements, the main
question is the proportion between the two.
But on one point I have to raise categorical objections. While
Koestler's work on the Khazars is a well-meaning amateurish job, with
little true contribution, the Sumerian-Hungarian "theory" is sheer
nonsense, with no excuses. I studies Sumerian for a year: no resemblance
at all. Coincidences do exist, -- between any two randomly selected
languages. My colleage of Barnard College, Joe Malone, once wrote a
satirical comparison between Maidu and Hebrew proving that with a little
Procrustean adjustment of meanings and disregard for sound
correspondences anything can be "proved" (Maidu, a Pacific Coast Indian
languages, -- maybe someone among the readers will know why this is
ironic for Hungarians). Even trying to understand the nationalistic
"justification" for the Sumerian comparison, I don't see why the nation
of Arany Janos (etc., etc., etc., ..............) needs the historical
support of any nation on Antiquity (Berzsenyi Daniel derived Hungarian
from Latin, with etymologies like "terra > Hung. te'r"; there is also an
Etruscan-Hungarian club; yet Sumerian, being the first written language,
has proven to be the most attractive "theory"). The achievements of the
Hungarian nation, of all religions and including all minorities who by
being raised in Hungary are part of Hungarian civilization, well, all
those achievements are sufficient for not being "ashamed" to be Hungarian.
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I am constantly baffled by the Horn government. There seems to be absolutely
no ideological cohesion within it. Not even within the MSZP. Just to give a
new example. Here is Gyula Horn, who, after a lot of hesitation, sided with
the expert economists as far as the welfare state was concerned. He gave his
blessing to the "reform" of the welfare state. This "reform" is actually a
drastic reduction of entitlements, introduction of tuition at the university
level, privatization of dental care, etc. etc. So, on the one hand the
minister of finance, with the blessing of the prime minister and to the
delight of the business community, is dismantling what Janos Kornai called
the "abortive welfare state." So far so good. But then comes the minister of
justice, Pal Vastagh, who has just released his draft of a new constitution.
(I should mention here that the old communist constitution has been of course
amended God knows how many times, but no new constitution has yet been
written.) This draft contains surprising elements. The communist constitution
talked about "the values of democratic socialism" but that was scrapped in
June 1990 and instead the current text talks about "independent, democratic
state of law (jogallam)." Mr. Vastagh is not satisfied with this wording. He
suggests: independent, democratic, social state of law. (fuggetlen,
demokratikus szocialis jogallam). Moreover, the draft declares the following
goals of the state: the right to work, the right to shelter, and the right of
social security. How can two ministers talk such a different language within
the same ministry? What can we think of a prime minister who picked this
cabinet or a prime minister who doesn't control his ministers. I really just
don't know anymore.
One thing is sure. I do hope that the SZDSZ will kill this draft
constitution. Otherwise, the government has such majority that this atrocity
might just pass in parliament.
Eva Balogh
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