Hungarian textbooks consistently portray Jews in a positive light and contain detailed and balanced coverage of Jewish history, the Holocaust, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, IMPACT-se found in its new research, released on Thursday.
The report revealed that the curriculum includes extensive detail on Jewish history, including the historic role of Israel and the Jewish contribution to Hungary (such as the achievements of Hungarian Jewish Nobel laureates).
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found many of the descriptions of Jewish life to be free of bias and inclusive.
An example is an Ethics, Grade 6 textbook, which prompts an activity discussing what students have learned about the major religions.
The institute said the textbook’s depiction of Judaism is informative, free of bias, and empathetic. The text discusses antisemitic persecution suffered by Jews, including the Holocaust, which is referenced as a genocide.
There is also discussion of the Land of Israel as the historical home of the Jewish people, as well as the modern state that contains a large population of Jews, the report found.
The curriculum covers the Holocaust in depth and in an empathetic manner. IMPACT-se reported that textbooks describe discriminatory laws, deportations to Auschwitz, and the destruction of Hungarian Jewry, often using primary sources, survivor accounts, and historical photographs.
The textbooks also acknowledge the existence of Hungarian collaboration with the Nazis, while the curriculum personalizes the Holocaust through individual stories, including those of Anne Frank and Hannah Senesh.
However, there was a notable exclusion of the role of Nazi collaborators in the Hungarian local authorities.
Antisemitism is placed in an appropriate context, with one textbook clearly stating, “Antisemitism is not a product of the 20th century but has resurfaced in Europe for many hundreds of years.”
IMPACT-se also noted that Hungary is one of the few countries to directly confront a local case of antisemitism.
For example, a Grade 11 history textbook teaches about the infamous Tiszaeszlár blood libel, explaining the medieval accusation that Jews used Christian blood in rituals, and also covers the Dreyfus Affair.
In addition, a Grade 7 history textbook discusses how anti-Jewish legislation was first introduced in Europe in 1920. This contextualized approach helps students understand how antisemitic myths operated both across Europe and within Hungary itself, the institute noted.
An objective picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
According to IMPACT-se, Hungarian textbooks present the Israeli-Palestinian conflict accurately and objectively. Some textbooks even highlight the expulsion of Jews from Arab states, which is rarely addressed in European curricula.
For example, Grade 8 history textbooks include maps and detailed narratives of each major war, accurately describing the UN Partition Plan, Israel’s establishment in 1948, and the resulting refugee crises on both sides.
They also describe both Palestinian displacement and the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries.
“This is a curriculum filled with positivity towards Jews, the Jewish story, and Jewish history in Hungary and beyond,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.
“At a time when antisemitism is increasing across Europe and beyond, in an age in which distortions and falsehoods surrounding Jews are all too common, Hungary’s textbooks stand out as an admirable example of a curriculum dedicated to the accurate and wholesome portrayal of Jewish life, both past and present.”
Hungarian solidarity with the Jewish community
On Thursday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stood by the Jewish community and resolved to protect it against rising hate in Europe.
“In our capital, Jewish families and Jewish communities are safer than anywhere in Europe,” he said. “There is no other European country where Jewish communities living in the capital enjoy even a comparable sense of security to what they have here in Budapest.
“The government supports this as well with its zero-tolerance policy [for antisemitism]. We do not allow bands that incite hatred against Israel to perform in Hungary. And there are no violent migrants on the streets of Budapest, and there will not be any. This is what a modern European capital should look like.”