By AGNES BOHM
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
December 28, 2000
BUDAPEST—Hungary has signed an accord with local Jewish leaders "to promote the political, social and economic stability of Hungarian Jewry."
The signing ceremony took place last Friday, the first day of Chanukah, in the nation's Parliament.
The government has already signed similar agreements with the Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelical, Baptist and Serbian Orthodox churches.
In each case, the accords grant official recognition to the religious denomination.
Among its measures, the accord with the Jewish community states that the Hungarian government will back efforts to have Holocaust studies taught in the schools and to have victims of the Holocaust "regularly and in due manner remembered."
Peter Tordai, the president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, told JTA that the government also agreed to erect a memorial honoring Jewish Holocaust victims.
Existing Holocaust memorials were erected by the Jewish community.
Tordai praised the accord as the first undertaken by the government with Hungarian Jewry since 1849.
