Csanad Szegedi Quotes
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The idea of Judaism as a flower, it a message for Jewish people, talking about the future. Many people associate Judaism with old and dry laws, and the Holocaust. But with this metaphor, Judaism for me is useful, pleasant, and fills me with good feelings.
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The Jewish people have to get rid of their fears so they see the positive things and they need to dare to look at the world through their Judaism.
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When I belonged to Jobbik, I didn't wear a kippa and I didn't light Hannukah candles.
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Before the change of regime in 1989, you couldn't talk about anti-Semitism, and after the regime change, people started to talk about taboo subjects. I was 8 years old in those days, and later, in politics and society, these extreme wright ideologies got stronger - the skinhead movement was started, a lot of ex-Nazis emigrated and financially supported these extreme right movements in Hungary.
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When I was a student at university, I went to live in Budapest. I grew up in the countryside. In those days, I had a conservative right-wing way of thinking. At university, I met the other young people with whom I made this party, Jobbik. These friends grew to include more people, and as more people with these extreme-right views joined us, Jobbik became more and more extreme right. I was young, in my 20s, and we could continuously identify with these ideas.
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As I'm getting to know Judaism, my view of the whole world is changing.
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I got into the situation where I was extreme right. It turned out that my mother is Jewish, my grandmother is Jewish. I am Jewish. So I can't hate Jewish people.
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You talk as long as you are listened to.
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I used my talent as a speaker giving lectures to young people at schools in Hungary and I speak against hatred and anti-Semitism.
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I asked my grandmother how a Hungarian Jewish person can experience being Jewish. My grandmother answered was the only choice was to "keep quiet." I can understand her because she was a Holocaust survivor, and for her survival, she had to keep quiet. But I didn't obey my grandmother when I was a child, and in this case, I don't obey her either.
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I went to see Roma people in Hungary, so I could understand them.
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The roots of anti-Semitism is a complex question - if I think about why I was open to these thoughts, it was because I had never met any Jews before and therefore I could believe all the stereotypes of these people.
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Everybody can doubt, and they are free to doubt, and I don't want to convince anyone.
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I can say it's true that if I want to understand a certain minority, I need to meet them and get to know them.