Next Sunday, July 3, commemorative ceremonies on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry will be held in Budapest. The commemoration will take place at the entrance of the former Ghetto area, near the mass graves in the courtyard of the Dohany Synagogue, where 5000 inmates of the Ghetto are buried, and close to the Memorial Tree, whose metal leaves carry the names of victims of the Holocaust.

Delegations from the U.S. and Israel will participate in the commemoration, which will be attended by the President of Hungary and other dignitaries.

After the commemorative ceremonies, the ground will be broken for the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial park.

The event has been organized by the Emanuel Foundation, an organizaon of Jews from Hungary residing in the U.S. in cooperation with the city authorities of Budapest. The Foundation has been active in Hungary since the 1980s. Its projects included the erection of the Memorial Tree, the Raoul Wallenberg memorial Park as well as assistance to Jewish institutions in Hungary.

The foundation developed from a group of people who were concerned about the utter neglect of Jewish cemeteries in various places in Hungary.

In Hungary, as in other countries, especially in Eastern Europe, many Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated and ravaged. In numerous localities there are no Jews left to take care of the graveyards, and where there are Jewish communities, these, generally do not have the means to look after the graves.

Jews visit these cemeteries. They come to the graves of near and dear ones or to pray at the tomb of  a Tzaddik. They see the neglect, the overgrown graves, the vandalized tombstones and the rubbish dumped there and their hearts ache.

More than 10 years ago, a group of Hungarian Jews in the U.S. decided to take action. They were led by Mr, Leslie Keller and Mr. Andor Weiss. Both men visited Hungary often, and were well acquainted with the situation of the Jewish communities.

Together with Hungarian Jewish communal leaders they approached the Hungarian authorities suggesting the cleaning and repairing of the cemeteries, turning them into “memorial parks,” which would attract large numbers of tourists. The authorites showed great interest in the plan and promised their support.

“We cleared and restored the cemeteries of several towns with the financial help of Jews who hailed from those localities,” Mr. Andor Weiss told me, when I interviewed him a short time ago. “The Hungarian government gave us back that part of the Ujheli cemetery it had confiscated. We cleared and repaired the entire graveyard with funds raised by Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, the Rebbe of Satmar, whose ancestor, the “Yismach Moshe” is buried there.

“Nowadays, whover visits the cemetery in Ujhely and sees the results of our great efforts to preserve the tombs and protect them from vandals, realizes what Kevod Hamet (the honor of the dead) means to us Jews. May Jews all over the world take to heart this important Mitzva and do their utmost to redeem Jewish cemeteries from desecration, neglect and desolation,” Mr. Weiss said.

The group also renovated pat of Budapest’s Kazincizi Shul, reorganized the local Heder and repaired the Mivke. This was done with the help of the Hesed LeAvraham organization of Rabbi Yisrael Portugal, the Sekulner Rebbe of Brooklyn.

The group widened its activities and appealed to Jews of Hungarian descent throughout the U.S. and Canada to help them in their efforts on behalf of Hungarian Jewry. They were joined by people of different backgrounds and from all walks of life, including renowned personalities, such as the physicist Edward Teller and the actor Tony Curtis (for whose father, the late Emanuel Schwartz, the Foundation had been named).

The Emanuel Foundation was established in 1986- Leslie Keller was named president, Andor Weiss – executive vice president. In that  year -1986- theFoundation was granted permission by the Hungarian government to erect a memorial to Hungary’s 500,000 victims of the Holocaust. In 1988 the ground was broken for the monument and two years later, the memorial Tree was dedicated, with the Prime Minister of Hungary, other Hungarian dignitaries and Jewish leaders and personalities from various countries in attendance.

Mr. Weiss continued: “I told you about the restoration of our cemeteries. But what about our martyrs, who had no burials, who have no graves and no tombstones? In order to perpetuate their memory our Foundation in association with the Budapest Jewish community, erected the Memorial Tree. There is also another reason for this memorial: As long as the Memorial Tree stands in the heart of Budapest, no one will  dare to deny Hungary’s Jewish Holocaust or doubt its dimensions.”

Next year we hope to inaugurate the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park,” Mr. Weiss added. It will be a monument not only in honor of Wallenberg, but of all persons, Gentiles and Jews , who endeavored to save Jewish lives during the German occupation of Hungary. The names of these heroes will appear on marble tablets at the entrance of the park.”

The Jewish Press, Friday, July 1, 1994