Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1984. július-december (38. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1984-10-18 / 39. szám
8 AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, Oct. 18. 1984. By: Pynchas Brenner TO OUR READERS Dear Friend. With this issue of the Amerikai Magyar Sz6, we resume publication j of a monthly English language j supplement, under the name of j Hungarian Mercury. This name honors ! the memory of the first periodical j ever published in Hungary - a Latin j language publication called "Mercurius Veridicus Ex Hungária" (Messenger j of Truth from Hungary) - which served j the glorious struggle for Hungarian ; freedom and independence under the Í leadership of Prince Ferenc Rákóczi in the early 18th century (1705). It 1 is in the spirit of that early forerunner, enriched by the cultural and social advances of our own age, that we intend to edit the Hungarian Mercury. Our endeavour, we fully realize, is experimental. Its success depends on the enthusiastic participation of the readers of the Amerikai Magyar 1 Szo, particularly those who read the I English language press as well. We i wiH count on their input in the form ' of letters, suggestions, interesting and relevant clippings, etc. The readers of the Magyar Szó will, of course, receive the English language supplement each month as a regular part of their subscription at no additional cost. However, our aim is to broaden our readership beyond its current range. For an annual subscription fee of $ 6.- twelve issues of the Hungarian Mercury will be sent to any address in the U.S.A. We need your help. Please let us hear from you. Use the coupon below for your comments and/or contribution. In Friendship, Zoltán Deák, Editor, Magyar Szó ! Hungarian Mercury 130 E 16 St. New York,NY 10003 Dear Zoltán Deák: I welcome the publication of Hungarian Mercury. Here are my comments. Here is my contribution to the press. Send the Hungarian Mercury to : Name:................................................ Address:............................................. My name:........................................ WHEN THE EXHIBITION of the history j of Hungarian Jewry opens at Beth Hatefutsoth in the summer, Israelis will be able to see the record of a community J that dates back about 2,000 years, to Roman j times. In fact, the Jews were in Hungary before the Hungarians. At the beginning of the Second World War, there were close f to a million Jews in the country, and out s of a total population of one million in Buda- ; pest, every fourth person was Jewish. There are no exact figures, but Alexander Scheiber, the renowned historian, estimates i that out of the 100,000 Jews in Hungary today, 80,000 live in Budapest. Scheiber, who has been rector of the 107-year-old Rabbinical Seminary since 1950, recently published, in English, Jewish Inscriptions in Hungary, in which are documented, with abundant photographs, many of the archeological finds and written records that testify to the Jewish presence £ and to the participation of the Jews in the development of the Hungarian nation. The seminary has at present 20 students. Half of them come from different East European countries: the Sovjet Union, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Bulgaria. The present rabbis of Moscow and Riga are Budapest graduates. Scheiber received me in his dustladen offices. Surrounded by endless shelves, he made his way among them with ease, and proudly showed me a number of first editions and manuscripts. Among the former were Maimondies’ commentary on the Mishna and Nahmanides' explanation of the Tora. Scheiber, who is known as something of a maverick, or at least an independent thinker, was optimistic about the future of Hungarian Jewry since, in his opinion, the entire world is going through a religious revival. Intermarriage in Budapest is on the decline, he said, because everyone is looking for his identity, his roots. It is Scheiber who is largely responsible for the fact that the once-flourishing Orthodox Jewish community is alive - not Synagogue in Budapest containing a museum of Judaica. well, but alive. At the Sabbath morning services in the synagogues only the elderly are to be found. The notable exception is Scheiber's Friday night services and Oneg Shabbat, which attract several hundred mostly young people. With the arrival of an orthodox rabbi from Israel, Aaron Hoffman, new life is being instilled into the community. Shohatim travel periodically to the interior and to other East European countries to supply ritually-slaughtered meat, because Hungary is apparently the centre of Jewish life for the entire region. THE CHIEF RABBI of Hungary, Lazio Salgo, is Orthodox in his personal life, but he is the spiritual leader of the Dohány Temple, which belongs to the neological tradition. The Dohány Temple, probably the largest synagogue in the world, is located in the heart of what was the Jewish ghetto. When liberation came in 1945, they found 2,800 Jewish bodies in the street. They were immediately buried in the synagogue courtyard, which also bears a plaque in memory of Hanna Szenes. Eichmann had his office on the first floor of the building. Rabbi Brenner, the chief rabbi of Venezuela is co-chairman of the World Jewish Congress Commission on Intern-religious Affairs. Reagan’s record •In Reagan’s first two years, poverty in this country rose 47 percent. In 1979, there were 15 million poor people in America. After two years of Reaganism, there were 23 million. •Hunger is widespread and rising. The hardest hit are poor infants and children, the elderly, and families with an unemployed breadwinner. Computers in use in agriculture At present over 2.000 computers operate in agriculture, 1,5 per cent of investments by state farms and cooperative farms is allocated to computer development, a similar proportion as in the European capitalist countries. In addition in the 6th five-year plan period (1981-1985) the state is spending 200 million forints on the elaboration of programme systems for agriculture. The largest farms (for instance Bábolna and Agárd) have established computer centres, and the regional computer departments of the Central Office of Statistics had developed agricultural data-processing systems. The foundation of a joint computer company by 21 cooperative farms was another important step. The aim was to elaborate software specially fitted for cooperative farms. After 160 further cooperatives had joined the company, it became the largest computer company of Hungarian agriculture. At present it maintains links with over 700 agricultural units. PLEASE GIVE THIS ISSUE TO A FRIEND! •In New York City, 15,000 people called the Food and Hunger Hotline last year — a 70 percent increase from the year before. Most of them needed emergency food. The year before Reagan came into office, only 20 percent needed emergency food. •Five out of every six households receiving food stamps had their real benefits reduced. •Three million children have stopped receiving free or subsidized school lunches. In Massachusetts, for example, 640,000 children who were eating school lunches in 1981, didn’t get them in 1982. Half a million children have been dropped from the summer meal program. •660,000 children have lost Medicaid. •Of the mothers, infants and children who need food and nutritional services, only four in 10 are receiving them, according to the Department of Agriculture. •Some 365,000 families with dependent children have lost their monthly checks. AFDC checks have been reduced for another 260,000 families. Four million American families depend on AFDC as their principal source of income: knocking them off the role is a life sentence to poverty. From 101 Reasons to Vote Against Ronald Reagan By Terence Cannon The Jews of Hungary
