A group of 22 Hungarian Jews met with a leading IDF General in Tzfat yesterday - after their previous meeting with him led them to begin steps towards making Aliyah to Israel.
Correspondent Kobi Finkler reports that Northern Commander Gen. Benny Ganz led a group of some 200 IDF officers to Hungary earlier this year, on a program named "Witnesses in Uniform" in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day. "Following this visit," says Tova Pinto, who heads the Jewish Agency's delegation in Hungary, "we noted an increase in the number of people showing interest in immigrating to Israel. Some of them are now here in Israel on a pilot trip."
The meeting yesterday with Gen. Ganz, whose mother immigrated from Hungary, was described as an emotional one. "My mother grew up in a Hungarian village with 420 Jews," he told the visitors. "Only three of them survived the Holocaust. A stone now stands there, reading, 'In memory of the Jewish community that was taken.' Come to Israel - no one will 'take' you from here!"
Jewish Agency statistics show that Hungarian Jewish immigration, while small, is rising sharply. In 2003, 39 Jews arrived - while so far this year, 70 have already arrived, and more than 30 more are expected to come by the end of the year. The Hungarian Jewish community numbers 120,000, such that these numbers are only a drop in the bucket. But Tova Pinto says that an awakening is being felt all over the Jewish community: in renewed youth movements, full synagogues, and more.