Hungarian Jewish leader beaten at soccer match

JTA – The head of Hungary’s Raoul Wallenberg Association said he was beaten at a soccer match in Budapest.

Ferenc Orosz told the Hungarian news agency MTI during a conference Monday on hate speech that “first he was verbally assaulted and then his nose was broken after a match at Budapest’s Puskas Stadium which he attended with his family” the previous day.

MTI quoted Orosz as saying that soccer fans standing near him “were chanting for Mussolini and ‘Sieg Heil.’ ” The news agency reported that “when he asked them to stop he was threatened and called a ‘Jewish communist.’ ”

Orosz told MTI that two men blocked him as he was leaving the stadium and one hit him in the face, sending him to the hospital with a broken nose.

“Police have pressed charges against the assailant,” the report said. It also said Orosz had “discharged himself from the hospital on Monday in order to speak at a conference on hate speech.”

The incident happened just days before the World Jewish Congress is scheduled to hold its plenary meeting in Budapest to show support for Jews and Roma in the face of anti-Semitism and racism.

Peter Feldmajer, president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish communities, Mazsihisz, told MTI that the incident was “a manifestation of intolerance in society.”