AJC mission to Bratislava and Budapest

In order to advance our mission, the AJC Central Europe team organized a visit to the capitals of Slovakia and Hungary together with AJC Europe Director Simone Rodan-Benzaquen. We met with Slovak Foreign Minister Ratislav Káčer to discuss the priorities of Slovakia’s foreign policy and the implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine. We had fruitful discussions with Eitan Levon, Ambassador of Israel to Slovakia, and members of the Slovak parliament (Národná rada). The team also met with the leading Central European think-tank GLOBSEC and agreed on closer cooperation in the future.

AJC delegation meeting András Heisler, President of MAZSIHISZ

In Budapest we met with U.S. Ambassador David Pressman, who shared his perspective on US-Hungarian relations with us. During a meeting with András Heisler, President of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ), we learned about the most pressing issues for Hungarian Jewry, such as historical revisionism. In a meeting with Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Deputy State Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, we discussed Hungary’s plans to adopt a National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism and declared our willingness to join Hungarian Jewish organizations and contribute to the drafting process. The AJC delegation also met with Ágnes Kunhalmi, Co-Chair of the Hungarian Socialist Party, and talked about possible cooperation with parliamentarians on projects strengthening democratic values.