Antisemitic authors are to become compulsory reading in Hungary’s schools
JVL Introduction
Deutsche Welle (the German equivalent of the World Service) reports on the rise of ethno-nationalism in Hungary and the positive valuation of antisemitic heroes of the past.
Using the covid-19 crisis as an excuse, Orban has made an enormous power grab, parliament passing a law which allows him to rule by decree.
At the same time the education system in under assault. The nation’s historical wartime defeats are to be deleted from textbooks and replaced by portrayals of victorious battles. Hungarian legends and myths are to be presented as historical facts.
The Board of Deputes of British Jews has spoken out timidly in recent years about developments in Hungary.
In February 2019 it met Hungarian government reps and expressed concern about “the use of antisemitic tropes, and remarks directed at Muslims and migrants; moves to downplay the role of historical Hungarian leaders in supporting the Holocaust” and more.
But its communique ended:
“We had a respectful and honest dialogue on these matters, while also acknowledging the positive actions of the Hungarian Government, including moves to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, strong bilateral relations with Israel, and the investment in the forthcoming Maccabi Games in Budapest.”
So that’s all right then…
This article was originally published by DW (Deutsche Welle) on Tue 31 Mar 2020. Read the original here.
New school curriculum raises eyebrows in Orban's Hungary
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I was brought up through the late fifties and early sixties. I recall how unquestioning was admiration for the British Empire and its supposed legacy; a narrative which stretched right back to the Norman invasion and the “magnificent” kings and queens who ruled us thereafter.
We were never taught about the fact that these invaders had asset-stripped the country for a century and more. Neither were we taught about the essentially foreign nature of these rulers, who didn’t even speak English until the end of the fourteenth century.
These foreigners were “good” people, with their descendants still effectively writing their history today. As for the “invaders” who preceded them – Saxons, Jutes and Angles, moving fairly gently into the space opened up by the retreating Romans – I was taught, ever so subtly, to see these as violent invaders. That was a bad thing; the complete obliteration perpetrated by the Norman invasion was spun as an essentially “good” thing.
But, in the class war which has been waged ever since, those who ruled us (and, to a greater or lesser extent rule us still) would not wish their role as rulers – good, benign, and admirable – to be questioned.
A thousand years of indoctrination, which we are all too slowly growing out of – but growing out of, nonetheless. And a Hungarian autocrat wants to turn the clock back and re-assert the self-same level of indoctrination amongst the young of his own country.
We would do well to understand how easily ideologies can indeed be turned on their heads; and how fragile is our own emancipation from such destructive histories.
This revival of fascism and anti-Semitism cannot possibly tolerated by the governing bodies of the European Union.
Might be better to concentrate on things slightly closer to home. The very first book I was given to read in school aged 7 was by an avowed Jew hater.
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is a marvelous book. Its author was an antisemitic prick.
How many A-Levels or university degrees take in other Jew-hating arseholes like TS Eliot or Anthony Trollope or Alice Walker or PG Wodehouse.
Fuck Orban and fuck the idiots who support him, but if you think this is a problem only in Hungary, then you haven’t been paying attention.
Sounds like life in America under the fascist Trump regime!
Have you asked the BOD for a comment?