Hungary’s Education Ministry approves new university-level Jewish studies program
The EMIH-run Milton Friedman University in Budapest will offer undergraduate and graduate programs, with the MA track available online in English for international students
Hungary’s Education Ministry has approved a Jewish studies program at Milton Friedman University in Budapest.
The decision was announced during a February 10 meeting between Education Minister Balazs Hanko and Rabbi Shlomo Köves, chief rabbi of the EMIH Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities.
The Jewish studies program will be available at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. While the undergraduate program will be taught in person in Hungarian, the graduate program will be offered online in English, making it accessible to students in Hungary and abroad.
Named after the renowned Jewish-American economist whose immigrant parents were from what was then part of Hungary (and now is part of Ukraine), Milton Friedman University opened in its current form in 2018 after being acquired by EMIH, which is affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
EMIH also has plans to open a new religious school, the first of its kind in Hungary since the Holocaust. The school will serve students from across the region, including the children of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries from all over Europe.
As antisemitism has skyrocketed worldwide since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led atrocities in southern Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, Hungary has notably had no violent antisemitic crimes, and members of the local Jewish community report being able to walk the streets freely without harassment. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and Israelis visit Hungary as tourists each year.
Hungary has maintained warm relations with Israel despite a chill in ties with many European countries following October 7.
The country has also shown wide support for Israel in the EU and the UN, including by voting against a nonbinding UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks. After the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants late last year for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s war in Gaza, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed not to enforce the warrants and invited Netanyahu to visit Hungary.
Correction: An earlier version of this article claimed Milton Friedman University’s to be the first Jewish studies degree program in Hungary. Several other such programs have existed since the 1990s.
