Hungarian ruling party sponsors festival rife with anti-Semitic books

(JTA) — Anti-Semitic literature was on display at a festival in Slovakia sponsored by Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz.

Among books on display at the event were Henry Ford’s “The International Jew;” “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and Erno Raffay’s openly anti-Semitic book on the Freemasons, “Politizalo szabadkomuvesseg,” according to a report Thursday on the news analysis website Hungarian Spectrum.

The July 18-21 Free University” was partly paid for by Fidesz, according to Professor Eva Balogh of Yale University, who blogs on current affairs for the news site. A keynote speaker was Laszlo Kover, the speaker of the Hungarian parliament National Assembly of Hungary.

MKP, an ethnic Hungarian party in Slovakia, hosted the event, and it was co-organized by the Fidesz youth organization Fidelitas; the Association of the Young Christian Democrats.

Last month, Hungary’s highest court found that a co-founder of Fidesz, Zsolt Bayer, had made anti-Semitic statements in a 2011 op-ed.

Fidesz has condemned the ultranationalist opposition Jobbik Party for its anti-Semitism, but Jewish leaders and U.S. officials have said that the rejection of the phenomenon by the party and its leaders has not been forceful enough.