Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday July 20, 2001

Restitution delays anger Hungarian Jews

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- The president of the Hungarian Jewish community is threatening to hold demonstrations if compensation payments
Peter Tordai, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, said the group is appealing to Prime Minister Viktor Orba

Last December, Hungary's Constitutional Court canceled a discriminatory compensation law from 1999 that granted about $140 to Jews whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust, a fraction of the amount granted victims of communist terror. Relatives of those executed by the Communists -- though far fewer in number -- have received $3,300 each.

In protest against the paltry sum, many angry recipients have returned the money, some directly to the prime minister.

A government spokesman said the matter of Jewish compensation probably would not reach a legislative settlement until after next year's general elections in Hungary.

There are about 100,000 Jews living in Hungary -- and an estimated 25,000 Hungarian-born Jews living elsewhere who would likely be eligible for compensation.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.