CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Bohus, Kata |
|---|---|
| Title | Jews, Israelites, Zionists. The Hungarian State's Policies on Jewish Issues in a Comparative Perspective (1956-1968) |
| Summary | The dissertation investigates early Kádárism in Hungary, from the point of view of policies regarding Jewish issues, using a comparative framework of other Eastern European socialist countries. It follows state policies between 1956 and 1968, two dates that mark large Jewish emigration waves from communist Eastern Europe in the wake of national crises in Hungary (1956), Poland (1956, 1968) and Czechoslovakia (1968). The complex topic of policies relating to the Hungarian Jewish community, individuals of Jewish origin and the state of Israel facilitates the multidimensional examination of the post-Stalinist Party state at work. It also facilitates the testing of political models of communism, which aim to describe “real socialist” regimes by way of totalitarian or authoritarian characteristics. The dissertation focuses on the main loci of political decision-making in the Party state and explains why and in what context the ‘Jewish Question’ emerged. The main topical areas that are discussed are policies relating to the Hungarian Jewish community, various forms and manifestations of antisemitism, and relations with the state of Israel. The dissertation argues that Jewish policies did not follow the general direction of the Kádár regime’s first decade, which has been described in academic literature as a clear trajectory from orthodoxy to liberalization. Kádárism, while officially relegating Jewish affairs in the realm of religious matters, facilitated the manipulation of the understanding of Jewishness through an institutional power structure that yielded to the personal and group interests of the political elite that operated it. As a consequence, various tensions that had existed between Jewish and non-Jewish Hungarians before the establishment of a communist regime in 1948 repeatedly filtered through the political framework set by the Party state. At the same time, this situation resulted in the repeated, but not systematic discrimination of those who were considered, at one time or another, Jewish. In the long run, this situation led to the survival of antisemitism, but also a distinct Hungarian Jewish identity, both of which powerfully resurfaced after the systemic change in 1989. |
| Supervisor | Kovács, András |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/bohus_kata.pdf |
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