Hungary's PM Slams Anti-Semitism in His Nation; But Jews Upset He Didn't Decry Anti-Semitic Party

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban today (May 5, 2013) strongly denounced growing anti-Semitism in Hungary -- the most prevalent in all of eastern Europe --  but stopped short of censuring the far-right anti-Semitic Jobbik party his audience of world Jewish leaders most wanted him to scold, according to the Reuters website.

Orban told the World Jewish Congress (WJC) -- which is holding its four-yearly assembly in Hungary to highlight its concern about rising hostility toward Jews there and elsewhere in Europe -- that anti-Semitism was "unacceptable and intolerable."

He recounted the steps his conservative government has taken to outlaw hate crimes and preserve the memory of the Holocaust, in which over a half-million Hungarian Jews died.

But he did not respond to a call from WJC President Ronald Lauder, who in his opening remarks singled out Jobbik and told Orban "Hungarian Jews need you to take on these dark forces." After Orban's speech, a WJC statement said: "The prime minister did not confront the true nature of the problem: the threat posed by the anti-Semites in general and by the extreme-right Jobik party in particular."