Hungary's Jews face down new anti-Semitism, embrace heritage

[Bohunk68]

1. I'm on an email list

of descendants of Hungarians. There has been quite a bit of information coming out of Hungary about Jobbik and the strident anti-semitism of the group. The list is maintained by a woman who is of Jewish heritage. I have a Jewish great grandfather (on my father's side) who had married in the US a Hungarian woman who was Hungarian Reformed church. Therefore, her children were all raised as Xtians. When I started doing my genealogical research, I had suspected that GGF was Jewish because of our last name, Tobias. When I could find no Tobiases in baptismal records, I thought this more strongly. When I checked the 1848 census which was taken after the 1848 Revolution and was of Jews only, I found tons of Tobiases. When I shared this information with my Hungarian descended relatives, Oh my! The shrieks that went off all around me saying I was full of shit!!!. The anti-semitism could be cut with a butter knife. I am now, of course, persona non grata at those family gatherings. Plus the fact that I'm GLBT doesn't help any. In any event, fuck 'em, they were never a part of my life anyway since I was raised by my mother's family after the divorce. Part of the reason for the divorce was that mom was not Hungarian, but old-line CT Yankee. So, the anti-semitism amongst Hungarians doesn't surprise me in the least.