Left: Csanad Szegedi. Right: Rabbi Shlomo Koves.

Former Neo-Nazi Leader Converting to Judaism

Csanád Szegedi, a former leader of the ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic Hungarian Jobbik party who last year learnt that he has Jewish ancestry, is converting to Judaism with the assistance of Chabad rabbis in Budapest, the German newspaper ‘Welt am Sonntag’ reports.

Szegedi, who was openly anti-Semitic until his ‘coming out’ as a Jew last year, was one of three members elected for Jobbik in the 2009 European Parliament elections but has since left the party and is now sitting as an independent in the Strasbourg assembly.

Szegedi told the paper that he is trying to keep kosher and to observe the Sabbath. “I have discovered that I can reconcile my conservative viewpoints as Hungarian and as observant Jew,” he told the German newspaper.

When his Jewish ancestry became known last year Jobbik leader Gabor Vona at first intended to keep him in the party so critics could not call Jobbik an anti-Semitic party, Szegedi said. However, after repeated anti-Semitic broadsides from party members he chose to leave the movement. Afterwards, people asked him to show remorse. He told ‘Welt am Sonntag’: “This is when I thought, hey, am I supposed to apologize for the fact that half of my family died in Auschwitz?”

In June 2012, Szegedi revealed that he had learned that his grandparents on his mother’s side were Jewish: his maternal grandmother survived Auschwitz and his maternal grandfather was a veteran of forced labor camps.

Szegedi was raised as a Calvinist.

Prior to the revelation of his Jewish ancestry, he was notorious for his incendiary comments about Jews. In 2007, Szegedi was one of the paramilitary Hungarian Guard, a group with black uniforms and striped flags reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party during World War II. The Hungarian Guard was banned in 2009, at which time Szegedi joined the Jobbik party, the country’s biggest far-right political force.

When rumors of his Jewish ancestry started swirling on the internet, Szegedi went to talk to his 94-year-old grandmother, who he never knew was Jewish. “She opened up and she talked about her life and how she was sent to Auschwitz and how our family was annihilated. I was shocked. First of all because I realized the Holocaust really happened,” he told ‘CBN News’ earlier this year.

At first, Szegedi said he tried to hide his Jewishness and act like nothing had happened, but then realized he could not stay in Jobbik.

“When I first met with Csanad, I had very, very mixed feelings because on one hand I was sitting across from a member of the Jobbik party, which has extreme anti-Semitic views,” Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Shlomo Koves told CBN News. “But on the other hand, I was sitting across from a broken person who has realized what he has done and has come to a situation where he figured he had to change but he didn’t know how to change,” he added.

Szegedi started attending synagogue and jokes that he was treated by some members “like a leper.” But then he started taking classes at the synagogue, learning Hebrew and the meaning of kosher and Shabbat. He said his life has completely changed. “It is changed everything. It is like being reborn, and the changes in my life are still happening,” he said. “I had this set value system that I had to change completely. I had had this value system until I was 30 and I had to admit that it was all wrong and to find the will to change.”

22 Comments

  • Andrea Schonberger

    Excuse me but Jews don’t have to convert to Judaism–they’re ALREADY Jews.

    • Milhouse

      First of all, that’s not true. There is no giyur involved. There’s mikveh (because of the tum’ah of avoido zoro, but if he was a Calvinist that’s probably not AZ), and kabolas hamitzvos (which techinically should apply to any baal teshuvah), but it’s nothing to do with giyur.

      But he didn’t shmad — his grandparents did. So why does he need even a symbolic “conversion”?

  • Converting, isn't he Jewish?

    Based on what he said, there is no need for him to convert?
    “In June 2012, Szegedi revealed that he had learned that his grandparents on his mother’s side were Jewish: his maternal grandmother survived Auschwitz”

  • NoYechi770InJerusalem

    He would need a bris that his for sure as in Europe the Goyim & many frei Yidden do not even do medical circumcisons.

  • i dont think they mean

    ‘halachik conversion’ i think it means hes totally converting his beliefs, lifestyle etc.

  • Can't you all read?

    Can’t you all read?

    The article very clearly states, “Szegedi was raised as a Calvinist.”

    • Milhouse

      Who cares how he was raised? What’s the difference between being raised as a Calvinist and as an atheist or a “reformed Jew”?

    • Yanover

      Millhouse, there are deos that if a frum person becomes reform and then does teshuvah he needs to go to beis din because reform is not yidishkeit and is shmad.

    • Milhouse

      And someone who grew up reformed? How is that different from growing up Calvinist?

    • Milhouse

      In any case, a baal teshuvah does not need giyur; if he goes to a beis din it’s to re-accept divrei chaveirus. He can’t and needn’t accept ol mitzvos, because he’s mushba ve’omed mehar sinai.

  • magyar zsido

    We have to stop the self-hating Jews from threatening Hungary. Jobbik is a much worse disease than leprosy (to paraphrase Szegedi). Hungarian Jews are unified against Fidesz, which is the current ruling party in Hungary. Fidesz steals many ideas from Jobbik and appeals to the rising anti-semitism there. Under Fidesz’s rule, anti-semitism has blossomed in Hungary.

    Fidesz (with the support of Jobbik) is doing much to honor the era when Hungary was allied with Hitler. Putting up statues to Hitler’s ally Horthy is only one way that Fidesz is playing into this game.

    Luckily, the Hungarian Jewish community knows exactly what’s going on. I stand with my fellow Hungarian Jews in condemning the politicians who pander to the rising anti-semitism like the court Jews who are getting treats from the government at the expense of their people.

    Listen to Hungary’s leader. He says that the only path to morality is Christianity- in many ways he calls us barbarians.

  • Reb Yid

    He doesn’t need to convert. Rather, he needs to reapply for admission to the human race. One day he’s villifying Jews and saying he doesn’t need to apologize because some of his family were holocaust victims, and the next day he’s being paraded around by cha bad like he’s some sort of tzaddik. That’s very irresponsible and sensationalistic of chabad to do that. This guy needs to be lovesh shechorim for a few hears and then we’ll see.