Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (EMIH) head Rabbi Shlomo Köves rejected and ridiculed Jobbik party leader Márton Gyöngyösi’s claims that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was controlled by Chabad, in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
In his first public statement on the matter since Gyöngyösi’s 2020 internal correspondence was leaked, Köves said that it was “100% ridiculous,” when Gyöngyösi wrote in response to Orban’s welcoming of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani’s assassination that the prime minister was “a Zionist collaborator, a captive of the Lubavitch movement.”
Köves explained that Gyöngyösi was “an antisemite with above average education about Jews, and he knows I’m part of the Lubavitch movement.” Köves and EMIH have had a close relationship with Orban’s government.
The rabbi joked that he “feels honored to have such a role in the eyes of our enemies. It is concerning on one hand, but on the other, if your enemies curse you, it’s praise.”
“He’s attacking Orban for being in general pro-Israel and pro-Jewish,” said Köves. “If the most antisemitic person in Hungarian politics is upset about how the government treats Jews or its relationship with Israel, then something must be going right in the country.”
According to the report by the Hungarian outlet Origo, which published the leak on February 7, Gyöngyösi had expressed frustration to former party deputy János Stummer that Orbán’s welcoming of US action against Soleimani was a provocation against Iran.
“It’s not very surprising he was upset by the US taking down Soleimani,” said Köves.
Funding by Iran and Russia?
Köves noted that there have been rumors since the creation of the Jobbik Party that they were being funded by Iran and Russia.
The antisemitic conspiracy letter was also not a surprise to Köves, who said that the opposition party had a history of antisemitic ideology, and while a few years ago distanced themselves from past statements for practical reasons, every few months another scandal surfaced.
During the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense, then-deputy leader Gyöngyösi suggested that the government draw up a list of Hungarian Jews.
“I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who pose a national security risk to Hungary,” said Gyöngyösi.
That same year deputy Jobbik president Csanád Szegedi resigned from his position when it was revealed he had Jewish ancestry. Szegedi connected with Köves, and soon after became a practicing religious Jew and left the country.
Hungary was a safe place for Jews, despite the revelations. Köves believed the Jobbik Party to be dying and predicted it wouldn’t meet the electoral threshold. He said that the government had cracked down on the pro-terrorist demonstrations that had emerged in other countries in the wake of the October 7 massacre, and also noted that Hungary had blocked the European Union from sanctioning Israeli settlers.
“In light of the war in Israel, Hungary has proven to be a safe place for Jews in Europe,” said Köves. “We live in a bubble of peace.”