Hungary denies anti-Semitism after outcry over Soros billboards

Hungary is rebuffing charges of anti-Semitism back after Jewish community leaders sent a letter to Prime Minister Viktor Orban asking him to immediately end a political ad campaign targeting Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist George Soros.

Janos Lazar, Orban’s chief of staff, says the anti-Soros campaign did not have any anti-Semitic connotations and reiterated the Hungarian government’s “zero tolerance” toward anti-Semitism.

“This matter is not about George Soros’ ancestry or identity but about what he does,” Lazar said after a weekly Cabinet meeting. “Viktor Orban considers Soros a successful, very smart and very talented Hungarian person.”

The government last week launched a billboard and television ad campaign seeking to discredit Soros’ pro-migration views. The posters and billboards show a smiling Soros with the caption “Let’s not allow Soros to have the last laugh!” and a notice claiming that 99 percent of Hungarians reject illegal migration.

Some of the posters in Budapest and other large cities in Hungary were defaced with slogans like “stinking Jew” written across the Soros image, which Heisler said confirmed the federation’s fears and were reminiscent of “the dark periods of Hungarian history.”

Orban met Thursday with several European rabbis and Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, telling them he was committed to religious freedom for Jews.

“Hungary’s Jewish community is under the unconditional protection of the government,” Orban told Lau, according to the Hungarian leader’s spokesman.

— with AP