Budapest, Hungary

"I have a story that might give you a better understanding of how people in Hungary feel or felt towards their Jewish identity. When we moved to Budapest 15 years ago we rented an apartment. While the landlord lived next to us, he never spoke to us. He knew we were Jewish and Israelis. When we decided to move after four years he invited us for the first time to his house. I immediately realised he has all of this Jewish symbols and art in his house, so I asked where does he has it from, is he a collector. He than lowered his voice and said quietly “I’m also Jewish”. I couldn’t understand why didn’t he tell us before. He knew I was working for the Jewish community. Looking back, I can start to understand what he might have gone through all this years during and following world war two and the communist regime. Since than, his girls went to Szarvash Jewish summer camp and became very much involved in the Jewish community, and he also started to come to Jewish festivals and events. Imagine the transformation he had to go through to get to this point that he’s walking along the street and telling everybody he is Jewish."

The photo was taken during a Jewish street festival organised by Balint Haz JCC in Budapest.