BUDAPEST, Hungary — As Hungarians go to the polls of their most consequential parliamentary elections for the reason that fall of communism 35 years in the past, Ferenc Olti is torn.
Like many of the estimated 100,000 Jews who stay on this Central European nation, the 77-year-old Olti is a diehard liberal who despises the authoritarianism of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s more and more autocratic ruler for the final 16 years.
“It’s a disaster what Orbán is doing. He has destroyed democracy,” stated Olti, a former vice-president of the Hungarian Jewish Affiliation who lives within the lake resort of Balatonfüred. “Are you able to think about that for a thousand years we dreamed of belonging to the Western world, and now that we’re a member of NATO and the European Union, alongside comes this man who says our greatest buddies are Russia — and that our enemies are Brussels and Volodymyr Zelensky?”
Then again, he stated, “Orbán did two issues proper: He didn’t let Muslim immigrants into Hungary, and he strongly helps Israel. As a Zionist, that is my hesitation.”
Such is the internal stress of the Hungarian Jewish voters on the eve of Sunday’s election, which pits Orbán, 62, of the ruling Fidesz celebration towards a youthful former ally, Péter Magyar, 45, of the upstart Tisza celebration, who has promised to revive among the democratic safeguards that Orbán has eroded.
This week, U.S. Vice President JD Vance made a rapid stopover in Hungary in a bid to spice up Orbán’s possibilities of profitable Sunday’s election, that are broadly seen as unfair and rigged towards the opposition.
Even so, this intolerant, far-right icon faces his first actual likelihood of defeat since coming to energy in 2010. The newest polls give his ruling Fidesz celebration solely 39% of the vote, in comparison with round 50% for Magyar. (There are additionally different candidates within the race.)
Orbán now ranks because the EU’s longest-serving chief, fancying himself a defender of Christian household values and a bulwark towards LGBTQ+ rights and variety — following an analogous path that his ally, President Donald Trump, has taken in the US. Orbán, an admirer of Vladimir Putin, has persistently blocked EU help to Ukraine in addition to sanctions towards Russia.
Orbán can be an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, internet hosting him in Budapest final yr after the Worldwide Prison Courtroom issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest. The Hungarian chief refused to have his Israeli counterpart arrested, and subsequently started the authorized strategy of withdrawing from the ICC — a transfer that triggered outrage from the EU.
Hungary’s Viktor Orban, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stroll collectively in Budapest, April 3, 2025. (GPO)
Hungarian Jews’ attitudes about Israel are sophisticated. An inside group survey discovered that right here in Budapest — birthplace of Theodor Herzl, the daddy of contemporary Zionism — solely about 20% of Jews unconditionally help Israel as a Jewish state, in keeping with Olti. Final yr, lots of of Hungarian Jews, together with artists, teachers, and the nation’s first feminine rabbi, signed an open letter condemning the Israeli authorities over the conflict in Gaza.
But many Hungarian Jews are appreciative that Orbán has not turned on Israel as different world leaders have lately, and that his insurance policies — at the same time as they’re broadly seen as intolerant and illiberal — have insulated Hungary from the anti-Israel protests which have made Jews really feel insecure in lots of different European capitals.
“The Jews aren’t a homogenous crowd, and once I speak with members of my congregation concerning the elections, there are such a lot of opinions,” stated Rabbi Robert Frölich of Budapest’s Dohany Avenue Synagogue in an interview in his workplace. “A yr in the past, most Jews agreed that this authorities has to go. Now, I wouldn’t dare say so.”
A number of late-breaking developments might affect the Jewish vote. A professional-Orban billboard marketing campaign portraying Zelensky as a shadowy determine behind Magyar is igniting allegations of antisemitism. Critics of the billboards say they comply with the identical playbook that Orban used a decade in the past when he portrayed the Hungarian-born Jewish liberal mega-donor George Soros as pulling the strings of his opponent. On the time, the Israeli authorities — led then as now by Netanyahu — challenged the advertisements and referred to as them antisemitic.
A Budapest avenue poster invokes Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to induce Hungarian voters to help Fidesz, the ruling celebration of Prime Minister Viktor Órban, forward of the April 12, 2026, election. (Larry Luxner)
Much more stunning has been revelations that surfaced throughout Vance’s go to exhibiting that Orban’s overseas minister, Peter Szijjartot, supplied to assist Iran — a key sponsor of Hezbollah — following Israel’s September 2024 operation in Lebanon that induced hundreds of pagers to blow up concurrently.
For Orban’s Jewish critics, the revelations supply affirmation that his pro-Israel stance is cynical.
“Orbán is the worst factor that ever occurred to Hungary, and I’ll be joyful to see him go,” stated a Jewish businessman who requested to not be named for worry of repercussions from inside his personal Orthodox group. “I perceive why it’s good for Jews that there are not any Muslims right here in Hungary, however we’re only a software, so Orbán can say he loves us however hates everybody else.”
However Magyar isn’t a transparent draw, both. Frölich — whose synagogue is the biggest in Europe and the second-largest on this planet — plans to vote for the Democratic Coalition, a leftist celebration recognized by the acronym DK that isn’t anticipated to rack up many votes.
“In my view, Tisza is the darkish horse,” he stated. “I don’t hear something from them about Jews, about Israel, about immigration, schooling or healthcare, or what they’ll do once they come to energy.”
Then there are those that are ardent Orban supporters. Tamir Wertzberger, 38, is the grandson of Holocaust survivors, vice-chairman of the London-based European Younger Conservatives and worldwide coordinator for Netanyahu’s celebration, Likud. He’s optimistic concerning the consequence of the election.
Rabbi Robert Frolich, left, and Tamir Wertzberger favor completely different candidates in Hungary’s 2026 election. (Larry Luxner)
“I’m undecided he’ll lose. In my view, he’ll win,” Wertzberger stated about Orban over espresso at a bistro fronting the Danube River. “I do know the system, and I understand how polls function. It’s much like what’s happening in Israel. You’ll be able to’t actually belief polls at this time.”
Final month, Wertzberger revealed a Hebrew-language e-book titled “The Gatekeeper of Europe: Viktor Orban and the Hungarian Independence Conflict.” He acknowledges that Hungary’s financial scenario is dismal — partially as a result of the nation is being fined 1 million euros day by day for not having accepted the EU’s immigration package deal, which might require accepting refugees from Muslim nations.
However he stated that in his view, there’s “virtually zero” antisemitism in Hungary, and the few incidents that happen principally contain vacationers or Arab college college students — and he attributes that dynamic to the prime minister’s insurance policies.
“There’s a number of sense behind what Orbán is saying and doing,” stated the Israeli.
The concept that Hungary is the most secure place in Europe for Jews is one which Orban himself has espoused repeatedly — and that Israel’s right-wing Diaspora minister, Amichai Chikli, has echoed.
Many native Jews say they imagine it. Kalman Szalai retains tabs on antisemitism because the director of the Jewish group’s Motion and Safety Basis.
In response to his group’s surveys, greater than 30% of Hungarians imagine in anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, although reported incidents are uncommon. In France, he stated, the quantity is simply 7%, and in Sweden simply 2.5% — however Jews really feel way more threatened in these two nations.
“Within the final 15 years, there’s been an enormous Jewish renaissance due to the safety and massive authorities monetary help,” Szalai stated. “Many synagogues have been renewed and reopened.”
October 7 Sq., devoted to Israeli bloodbath victims, is positioned in entrance of the Dohany Avenue Synagogue in Budapest. (Larry Luxner)
The native Jewish revival is hard-fought. Up till early 1944, Hungary was nonetheless thought-about a secure haven for Jews, who went about their lives with out having to put on the yellow star pressured upon Jews in different Nazi-controlled territories. However in March of that yr, the Nazis put in a puppet regime and, within the area of 52 days, despatched 450,000 Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz.
Even so, the comparatively massive numbers of Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust and stayed of their nation represent one among Europe’s greatest communities; at this time, solely France, Britain, Russia, Germany and Ukraine have extra Jews.
Shlomo Köves is govt rabbi of EMIH, the umbrella group for Hungary’s dozen or so Chabad-Lubavitch synagogues. He famous that Hungary is exclusive in that its Jews didn’t come from some place else — in contrast to France, the place Sephardic Jews from North Africa dominate the group; Britain, which is generally Jap European Ashkenazi Jews; and Germany, the place most Jews are from ex-Soviet republics.
Köves counts within the dynamic: Whereas the Chabad motion routinely sends emissaries to nations which are new to them, Koves grew up in Hungary. Born to a secular household, he grew to become observant on his personal and obtained a PhD in Hungarian historical past earlier than turning into the nation’s first Orthodox rabbi to be ordained for the reason that Holocaust.
Rabbi Slomo Koves, head of EMIH, stands contained in the Star of David-shaped elevated hall on the Home of Fates Holocaust museum, housed in a former railway station that deported Jews to focus camps, seen in Budapest, Aug. 27, 2021. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
His views on the election emerge from each that vantage level, and from his encounters with the Hungarian Jews who interact with Chabad.
“The left has all the time rightfully blamed the fitting for being antisemitic,” Köves stated. “Orbán grew to become this satanic determine, and plenty of Jews who have been extra leftist than Jewish have additionally deliberately performed this card.”
But he stated priorities appear to have shifted for the reason that Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel, when antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment exploded throughout Europe, and Orbán declared he wouldn’t permit pro-Palestinian demonstrations wherever in Hungary.
“Earlier than Oct. 7, in the event you would ask me what proportion of Jews help Orbán, I’d have informed you no more than 5%,” he stated. “Now, 20% to 30% of Jews would help him.”
How Jews will vote on Sunday all depends upon what values they maintain expensive, Köves stated.
“For some folks, liberal democracy and its values are an important, and the whole lot else is secondary,” he stated. “However my high precedence resides safely as an observant Jew. There’s no query at this time that this nation is among the most secure locations in Europe for Jews, and perhaps on this planet.”
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