Progressive Jews raise alarm over new US ambassador to Hungary’s links to Israeli far-right

Ben Landa (LinkedIn)[Missing Credit]

Responding to Landa’s prospective posting, Zsuzsa Fritz, the retired director of Budapest’s Jewish Community Centre (JCC), told Reporting Democracy: “According to my experience ambassadors can have a really important influence on the community.

"There have been ambassadors in the past who were really inspiring and motivating dialogue.

"I don’t think he will be someone who is very open to dialogue.

"I hope that this won’t be the case, because there is a part of the community that thinks differently from him about the situation in Gaza and in the world at large.”

Likewise, community organiser Adam Schonberger said: “His character is to support extreme right-wing forces or religious Zionist forces in Israel.

"Certainly, it will give the American ambassador the chance to emphasise one particular side.”

However, Rabbi Zoltan Radnoti, of Budapest’s Beit Shalom Synagogue, criticised those community figures, including Schonberger and Fritz, who signed a petition, titled “On behalf of the shared humanity of Palestinians and Jews”, urging the Israeli government to afford greater protections to Palestinians’ human rights.

He told BIRN: "The petition’s weak point is that Jews are warring with each other in a newspaper.

"They are giving voice to those who, according to halakha, aren’t actually Jewish. They’re merely Jewish sympathisers.

"It’s wrong to divide the Jewish community during wartime.”

Yet he also expressed hope that Landa will be open and pluralist in his role, should he be confirmed. “He shouldn’t be biased,” said Radnoti. “He belongs to Chabad, which isn’t as strong in Hungary as it is in the US.”