Jewish groups in Hungary fight over historic split of returned assets
The feud is the result of a 1991 law which offered compensation to existing Jewish communities for public assets such as synagogues from before the Holocaust.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFTHE FUNERAL of Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, on Sunday, in Jerusalem. The failure of haredi communities to come to terms with COVID-19, leading to extraordinary high rates of illness and death, requires soul-searching both internally and externally.(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
The union of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish communities in Hungary MAOIH is demanding $33m. in compensation from Reform communities in the country for allegedly holding MAOIH back from getting its fair share of Jewish assets in the post-socialist country. The Haredi community is "the oldest Hungarian Jewish denomination," Autonomous Haredi Jewish Community of Hungary (MAOIH) President Róbert Deutsch said according to a Thursday press release.The Reform community (MAZSIHISZ) hasn't responded to such claims for years. While the Haredi leader demanded the Reform community offer the funds, Hungarian Jewish life comprises of all different Jewish communities. There are, of course, non-observant Jews living in Hungary as well. “We have been trying for years to settle this unjust allocation of resources peacefully, but unfortunately our initiatives have received no response. The responsibility we feel for the survival of traditional Hungarian Jewish religious values leaves us no choice but to take extreme action,” he said. The feud is the result of a 1991 law which offered compensation to existing Jewish communities for public assets such as synagogues or bathing houses which used to be owned by a pre-Holocaust Jewish community. The Haredi leader claims that roughly 40% of the 153 existing properties which had been returned to the Jewish community of Hungary and are the basis for the perpetual annuity were owned by Haredi Jews before the Second World War. However, Deutsch claimed that MAOIH has received only 5% of the funding from the Reform community.
