ceremony attended by Hungarian President Ferenc Madl, BosNewsLife learned Saturday, January 4.
The milestone event in a synagogue in Budapest is seen as an effort to end decades of persecution that was highlighted by World War Two, when 600,000 Hungarian Jews died during the Holocaust, and Jewish suffering under the post-war Communist regime.
Hungarian News Agency MTI quoted the Chabad Lubavics Jewish Educational Association as saying that Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu would lead the ceremony on Tuesday, January 7.
Rabbi Baruch Oberlander told MTI that Shlomo Koves, who is 23 years old, will become Hungary’s third Orthodox Rabbi. He said Koves began his studies at the association, and that he had been preparing for his calling "since the age of 13." He also attended schools in Hungary, Israel, the United States, and France.
HOLOCAUST
Koves joins Oberlander, from the United States, and Aron Hoffmann, born in Transylvania, Romania, who are the current two Orthodox Rabbis in Hungary.
"The war and the Holocaust had reduced Jewish community life and practically eliminated the Orthodox school and Orthodox Rabbi training in Hungary," MTI quoted Oberlander as saying. He added that Jewish culture and religion experienced a revival after the collapse of Communism in 1989.
However news about the ceremony has been overshadowed by reports of anti-Semitism and plans by neo nazi groups to hold a meeting in February in Budapest.
ANTI-SEMITISM
Anti Jewish sentiments have also increased in other European capitals, including in France, as the conflict in Israel further escalates and an American led war against Iraq comes closer.
A Jewish Rabbi needed treatment in hospital after being attacked as he left a synagogue in eastern Paris on Friday, January the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other news reports said.
Rabbi Gabriel Farhi was stabbed in the stomach by an unknown assailant who reportedly then fled the scene. 34-year old Farhi said his wound was "large but not deep". He told the French News Agency AFP that he had earlier received a threatening letter referring to Jihad – the Muslim holy war – against enemies of the Palestinians.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, himself a recent stabbing victim, said in a statement he was "shocked by this hateful attack", the BBC reported.
