Hungarian textbooks offer extensive and accurate information on Jewish subjects and Israel, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) said in a report published on Jan. 8.
The IMPACT-se report, in which the institute measured Hungarian textbooks against UNESCO-derived standards and guidelines of peace and tolerance in education, said that Hungarian textbooks “almost always present Jews, Jewish history and Judaism in a positive manner.”
Students learn about “ancient Jewish ties to the land of Israel, profiles of major Jewish figures, and Judaism’s foundational role in shaping Christianity,” the report said.
A Grade 11 History textbook teaches about an infamous blood libel that grew out of Hungary, in Tiszaeszlár, in the 19th century. It explains “the medieval accusation that Jews used Christian blood in rituals, making Hungary one of the few countries whose national curriculum confronts a local case of antisemitism directly,” IMPACT-se wrote.
Some textbooks reviewed “even highlight the expulsion of Jews from Arab states, which is rarely addressed in European curricula,” the authors added.
On Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said, “In our capital, Jewish families and Jewish communities are safer than anywhere in Europe,” adding that this safety should be a reality for all the continent’s Jews.
“There is no other European country where Jewish communities living in the capital enjoy even a comparable sense of security to what they experience in Budapest,” Orbán continued during a Fidesz party nomination rally in the city.
“The government supports this as well, of course, with its zero-tolerance policy. You should be proud that we do not allow bands that incite hatred against Israel to perform in Hungary. That does not happen here. And there are no violent migrants on the streets of Budapest, and there will be none. This is how we believe the nation’s capital should function. This is how it ought to be. It’s what modern European capital should look like,” said Orbán.
His media team uploaded to X the segment of his speech dealing with safety for Jews.
IMPACT-se’s review of Hungary was positive in comparison to some European countries reviewed by the institute. French textbooks revealed “gaps in a number of areas, including contributions of Jews to French society throughout history, and in detailing the Jewish connection to Israel before its founding in 1948,” IMPACT-se said in a report in May on that country.
One of the French textbooks reviewed, a Grade 12 History, Geography, Geopolitics and Political Science textbook, “misleadingly refers to the Jewish community in pre-state Israel as ‘Zionist settlers,’ ignoring millennia-long uninterrupted Jewish presence in the Land of Israel and using language that “may carry unintended connotations,” IMPACT-se wrote.
