BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES: In early March, a captain of the far-right Magyar Garda, or Hungarian Guard, addressed his followers about the worsening worldwide financial crisis that had brought Hungary to the brink of bankruptcy.
“Jews run the world,” Draskovics Andras said in remarks that were recorded by a camera crew from Hungarian state TV. Jews “need only 2 billion people for their tricks, and the rest of the mankind will be executed,” he said, according to a Hungarian news Web site, Hvg.hu.
Soon after, on a national holiday in mid-March, the Hungarian Guard inducted 600 new members, who marched with insignias resembling those of its Nazi-era predecessors in Budapest’s largest square.
As the global financial crisis deepens, hitting some Eastern European countries particularly hard, Jews in Europe are watching closely to see whether far-right movements will rekindle old stereotypes about Jews and money, and fuel antipathy toward Jews.
The concern comes as Jews in Europe continue to reel from a sharp spike in anti-Semitic attacks during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, including several arson attempts on synagogues.
“The German neo-Nazis never fail to mention that Jews are to blame for the economic downturn at demonstrations when they think the authorities are not monitoring them,” said Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. “Over the last six months their supporters have used slanders like ‘greedy Jews.’
“There is constant talk of Bernard Madoff and how he is Jewish,” he said. “We are worried about this trend of connecting Jews to the crisis within the whole society.” >>> Dinah Spritzer, JTA Wire Service, Prague | Monday, March 30, 2009
