7:33 am: Shalom from Hungary
Kosher food, religious discussions, a swimming section in Lake Balaton reserved for women: Rina Jalilova, 18, feels “really comfortable” in Hungary in a Ukrainian refugee camp that was set up especially for believing Jews. According to its initiator, Rabbi Slomo Köves, of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the “Machne Chabad” sanctuary in the seaside resort of Balatonoszod, 130 kilometers southwest of Budapest, is “unique in Europe”. Hasidic.
“It is the only one intended for those who want to respect religious customs, the dietary rules of Jewish tradition and live in community,” explains the 43-year-old religious. Contacted by a Ukrainian rabbi to find a place to stay “in time for Passover,” Slomo Köves turned to the government of nationalist Viktor Orban, with whom he is close.
The Hungarian prime minister is regularly accused of flirting with anti-Semitism. In July, he was confronted by the Auschwitz Committee and Chief Rabbi Robert Frölich after making violent statements against “racial mixing”. Faced with the criticism, he waves zero tolerance for anti-Semitic acts and recalls that he renovated several synagogues. And when it refuses to open its doors to refugees from Africa and the Middle East, it has been quick to grant Slomo Köves use of those infrastructures.