The New Past and Future

Short summary of articles
It will not be easy for our magazine to get back to its daily routine, to the cultivation and dissemination of Jewish culture, which stands outside and especially above all politics. We’re just as tired as anyone else of making excuses and promising that there won’t be any more detours. Neither the increasingly precarious international situation nor the more and more “unfortunate” events taking place in Hungary facilitate any normal kind of existence, one that enables us to promote our cultural heritage as Hungarian Jews.
The deadly net now being woven around Tehran once again threatens Jews everywhere with destruction. Not surprisingly, it is accompanied by the unrelenting effort to degrade and rewrite the tragedy of the Jews – from which we have barely recovered – to the status of something that never happened. The denial of this unprocessed tragedy allows hardly a moment’s peace and quiet for Hungarian Jewry. We have arrived at an important turning point in the history of political transformation: it was officially announced (and then made its way into the mainstream of common discourse) that it is advisable for the Jewish people to leave the country. True enough, the advice was meant for only a short period of time (the weekend of March 15, the national holiday), then modified to the effect that it was only meant for the older generation. This warning, apart from being completely irresponsible, should be taken as a milestone, for it is nothing less than a revealing indication of the historical possibilities unfolding before our eyes, and, even more sadly, a sign of the low level of political consciousness.
Our present issue addresses these bitter challenges.
Jehuda Bauer calls attention to RADICAL Islam’s anti-Semitism, increasingly threatening the world. Leszek Kolakowski’s exquisitely timed speech, written on the occasion of the 23rd Jerusalem Book Festival, analyses the difference between patriotism and spiteful nationalism. An extract from Samson, the recently published book by Ágnes Heller, brings to life the complicated character and history of Biblical hero, whose faith and struggles with himself lead us to the conflicts, so difficult to discern, that face us in the contemporary world.
A poem by Andor Peterdi, written in 1917, evokes with prophetic foresight the tensions in the relations between Jews and Hungarians. And Márton Székhelyi contributes to this issue of Múlt és Jövô with an exceptionally valuable text, which might well be called an e-mail novel. From it we can obtain compelling hints of the thought processes of future generations of intellectuals.
The essay by Sidra Ezrahi analyses a delicate problem: the legitimacy and authenticity of the written and spoken language of the Holocaust. The portrait by Ágnes Huszár of cameraman András László traces what might be viewed as a typical Holocaust story – the loss to the world of a man of exceptional talents. Anna Zsigmond’s study is also about the Holocaust, from the point of view of the loss of the body corporate.
Gábor Andor Tooth guides us through an exhibition at the Ernst Museum that met with great success: a large number of the exhibit’s world-famous artists are Hungarian Jews who left Hungary as a consequence of the country’s vulnerability to fascism. His reviews focus on the works of two important Jewish artists, István Engel Tevan and Olga Máté.
In addition to the poems of Imre Goldstein and István Turczi, we are pleased to introduce our readers to a new poet, Áron Konrád, whose work appears for the first time in print in this issue.
Nearly one third of our issue contains writings omitted from our previous (Berlin) number because of size constraints. Hedvig Ujvári presents the Berlin experience of an important historical and intellectual figure of Hungarian origin: Max Nordau. An autobiographical extract by Edit Rényi and an essay by Anna Borgos throw light on the legendary love story of Edit Gyömrôi and Attila József. The interviews of György Fehéri about the paintings of Edit Kiss and their after-life reveal a great human and artistic tragedy, one that continued to affect the lives of a German family over several generations, until it was finally laid to rest through facing the Holocaust.
The shocking presentation of two letters by György Dalos – like that of Márton Székhelyi – exposes the deep and organic anti-Semitism of the Horthy era in Hungary through the annihilation of an artist, set against the background of Berlin. Finally, this issue closes with an essay by Andrea Dunai on the theft of the famed Hatvany art collection and its subsequent dispersal among Russians, Germans and Hungarians.

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Content

Andor Peterdi: Remembrance

Leszek Koîakowski: Patriotism and Ethnic Hatred (a speech held on the occasion of the 23rd Jerusalem Book Festival)

Ágnes Heller: Eris’ Apple or the Hero of Israel (an extract from Samson, a philosophical writing)

Jehuda Bauer: Some Thoughts on Radical Islam

Balázs Déri: Poems by Balázs Déri

János Kőbányai: An e-mail Novel is Born

more author: An E-mail novel on Seven Voices

Márton Székhelyi: On the Margin of an e-mail Novel

Áron Konrad: Poems by Áron Konrad

Imre Goldstein: Poems by Imre Goldstein

Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi: Questions of Authenticity

Ágnes Huszár: A Man Behind the Camera: András László

Anna Zsigmond: Men of Law in a Constitutional State

István Turczi: Poems by István Turczi

Gábor Andor Tooth: Art Criticism in Three Dimensions

Hedvig Ujvári: After Pest and Vienna, before Paris. Max Nordau’s Picture of Berlin

Edit Rényi: Against the Stream

Anna Borgos: Edit Gyömrői in Berlin

Helmuth Bauer - György Fehéri: Embracing fates (interviews, analysis of the œuvre of painter Edit Kiss)

György Dalos: A Man Disappeared

Andrea Dunai: The Trial of Lawyer Hans Deutsch (report about the sate of the inherinance of Ferenc Hatvany)

**: Observer

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