Category: 2019

2019, Hungary

Christian Illiberalism in Hungary in a Historical Perspective (and) How the Fidesz Government in Hungary is Co-opting the Churches

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Christian Illiberalism in Hungary in a Historical Perspective

Nora Berend

and

How the Fidesz Government in Hungary is Co-opting the Churches

Alexander Faludy

Discussion notes follow

(Summary of both presentations compiled by Philip Walters – 9 May 2019)

Christian Illiberalism in Hungary in a Historical Perspective

Nora Berend

A recently-established government-controlled research institute in Hungary has the Orwellian title Veritas. Its remit is to rewrite the history of Hungary from a national perspective. Its director has stated that the deportation of Jews from Hungary to Nazi-occupied territory in 1941 was not motivated by antisemitism but was a police action to remove illegal immigrants. A new museum called Sorsok Háza (House of Fates) was built to show that Hungarians tried to save the Jews during the war; because of significant protests, its opening has been delayed. A crucial issue being debated in Hungary is the place of the Holocaust in Hungarian history. One main theme of the official narrative is that Jews were not persecuted until Hungary was occupied by the Nazis in 1944.

The government designated 2014 as the commemorative year of the Holocaust. Many events were criticised and boycotted by the main Jewish umbrella organisation Mazsihisz. Government spokesmen distinguished between ‘Hungarian patriots’ and ‘Jewish co-citizens’. While claiming that the Holocaust was the work of the Nazis from Germany, the current Hungarian government is at the same time implicitly scapegoating the Jews as causing the problems: an official statement accused those boycotting the commemoration of undermining centuries of Jewish-Hungarian cooperation in the Carpathian basin. Another statement argued that Hungarians resisted communism because it was based on lies, and also that those now claiming that the present government was falsifying history were lying; thus the statement implicitly bolstered the persistent idea in Hungary that communism was created and implemented by the Jews.

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2019, Israel

How can we talk about the State of Israel and its Policies without being accused of Antisemitism?

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How can we talk about the State of Israel and its Policies without being accused of Antisemitism?

Edie Friedman
17 January 2019

Introduction

I would like to approach this difficult and vexed subject by dividing the talk into three sections:

  • Some introductory remarks about being Jewish which affect Jewish attitudes towards Israel and other wider social issues
  • What to avoid when talking about Israel and Jewish people
  • Some suggestions to help with the debate.

This presentation is not about the Israel-Palestine conflict but about how to talk about it.

But first a word about JCORE, the organisation I work for. JCORE provides a Jewish voice on race and asylum issues. We work in three main areas: Race Equality Education, Refugee and Asylum (both campaigning and practical support) and Black-Asian-Jewish Dialogue.

I will be presenting a Jewish perspective rather than the Jewish perspective. I use the term ‘Jewish’ to include both those who subscribe to the Jewish religion (Judaism) and those who see themselves as Jewish in terms of their ethnicity and their identification with the Jewish people. Many Jews, though by no means all, identify with both the religion and the ethnicity, but secularism is a very significant tendency within the Jewish world.

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2019, Populism

Populism: What does it mean for Europe, our Societies and our Minds?

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Populism: What does it mean for Europe, our Societies and our Minds?

Heather Grabbe

What is populism?

According to the political theorist Margaret Canovan,

if the notion of populism did not exist, no social scientist would deliberately invent it; the term is far too ambiguous for that. (Canovan, 1981)

Nevertheless, a number of features have been identified and definitions attempted. The Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde writes:

Populism considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups – the “pure people” versus the “corrupt elite”, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people. (Mudde,2007)

Populism has been seen as a political phenomenon neither good nor bad in itself, although at the same time it has been termed “the dark side of democracy”. It reflects a feeling that the elite is not working in the interests of the population. However, the “general will” of the people is a sparse definition, telling one nothing about how structures of government are to function.

Populism typically has several features. These include: scapegoating (for example of immigrants); nostalgia (every US politician has said “Let’s make America great”; Trump differs in that he says “Let’s make America great again”); the need to restructure politics. However, populism is a very thin ideology; it can be right-wing or left-wing; mainly it is a kind of drama. How can we recognise a populist drama? It involves three fingers of blame.

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