Hungary, antisemitism and my lost Jewish ancestors — Financial Times Magazine

BUDAPEST: Ahead of Sunday’s elections in Hungary, Kate Maltby visited the homeland of her grandmother, who had witnessed the rise of nationalism and then fascism, leading to the Nazi annexation and murder of 600,000 of the country’s 900,000 Jews.
Maltby said she first visited Hungary as a child, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the West believed the country was the vanguard of eastern Europe’s liberal capitalist future.
“Yet on Sunday Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expecting a third successive election victory that is set to tighten the grip of his nationalist Fidesz party on the country,” she writes. “His campaign has alarmed not only political liberals. The often antisemitic undertones have deeply disturbed many of Hungary’s remaining Jews, estimated by the World Jewish Congress at between 35,000 and 120,000.”
When she visited a Budapest synagogue three weeks ago, the rabbi said: “The government has identified two ancient Hungarian prejudices: fear of the Muslim and fear of the Jew.”