Hungarian Jews dissent from umbrella

By · December 5, 2007

Some Jews in Hungary sent the president a traditional Yiddish dessert after he was snubbed by the nation’s official Jewish umbrella group.

After the Association of the Hungarian Jewish Communities, or Mazsihisz, refused to attend an annual year-end dinner party between the president and religious leaders to protest President Lazlo Solyom’s failure to pass a new anti-hate law, one Hungarian Jewish group dissented.

Judapest.org, an online community of Hungary’s younger Jews, sent Solyom a dish of flodni, a traditional Yiddish dessert, as an act of goodwill and to make clear that Mazsihisz does not speak for all Jewish Hungarians.

“We regret the fact that Mazsihisz refused to be engaged in this dialogue” with the president, Bruno Bitter, who runs Judapest.org, told JTA.

Bitter said the president sent his group a personal thank-you note for the dessert.