April 2, 2017 — Budapest, Hungary
An AJC leadership delegation concluded two days of talks with Hungarian officials, diplomats and community leaders, capping its visit with the signing of an Association Agreement between AJC and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (Magyarországi Zsidó Hitközségek Szövetsége, or MAZSIHISZ).
The pact with Hungary’s largest Jewish communal body – signed by AJC President John Shapiro and MAZSIHISZ President András Heisler at the historic Dohány Street Synagogue – established AJC’s 34th international partnership.
This latest AJC visit to Budapest followed two days of meetings with Slovak officials and Jewish community leaders in Bratislava; both programs came immediately after AJC Central Europe, the global advocacy organization’s newest office in Europe, was launched at a gala in Warsaw.
Hungary is one of the seven countries in the region that AJC Central Europe is engaging. The others, in addition to Poland, are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Following government and communal meetings in Warsaw, before and after the Central Europe Office gala, sizable AJC delegations paid visits to the capitals of the six other countries.
“AJC Central Europe enables us to deepen our engagement with Hungary and other significant countries in the region,” said Shapiro. The government of Hungary has expressed enthusiastic support for AJC Central Europe.
Led by Shapiro, the 34-member AJC group conducted meetings in the Foreign Ministry with Péter Szijjártó, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Levente Benkõ, the ministry’s Political Director, focused on regional strategic and political affairs, cooperation with the United States and Israel, the future of the European Union, and the challenge of extremism.
Among other meetings, including with Israeli Ambassador Yossi Amrani and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires David Kostelancik, the delegation conferred with Dr. Csaba Latorcai, Deputy State Secretary for Priority Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office, on a range of communal and historical issues; Dr. Latorcai has met periodically with Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s Director of International Jewish Affairs, who accompanied the delegation.
AJC engages with Hungarian diplomats across the U.S. and Europe, and the global Jewish advocacy organization meets with senior Hungarian officials each year on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Photo By: Thomas Depenbusch
