As tensions over the Israeli elections are rising all over the Jewish world, the Hungarian Jewish communities struggles over the legacy of one of the chief founders of the State of Israel, Ze’Ev Jabotinsky.
The debate over Jabotinsky’s legacy has come to surface following the recent formation of the Hungarian branch of the Likud party with the aim to show clear support for the currently ruling Israeli government that has forged close ties with Hungary in the past few years.
It seems though, that there are voices in the local Jewish community, who do not cheer seeing the rise of Israeli right-wing politics.
Gabor Finali, a rabbi of the Neolog community represented by Mazsihisz (Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities), in a Facebook post spoke out very harshly against Jabotinsky’s legacy, using a language that equates the ‘ideological father’ of the Likud party to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and controversial Hungarian prime minister Miklós Horthy.
The Facebook post sent shockwaves to the politically divided community and was followed by a thorough reaction from Likud Hungary that defended the legacy of Jabotinksy.