Hungarian state secretary holds talks with Jewish organisations in US

Washington, DC, September 15 (MTI) – Levente Magyar, a foreign ministry state secretary, held talks with Jewish leaders in New York during a three-day visit.

Meeting senior executives of companies marketing kosher food, the state secretary discussed plans to increase sales by Hungarian suppliers to the US market.

In Brooklyn, Magyar met leaders of Jewish orthodox communities with Hungarian roots, who welcomed that the Hungarian government had launched a scheme for the renovation of Jewish cemeteries, and promised to part-finance and participate in it.

The government is taking an inventory of Jewish cemeteries for the first time, he said, adding that their number is estimated at 1,400 but only a few of them have so far been renovated.

Magyar visited the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and met representatives of the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee.

The state secretary said that all his negotiating partners qualified US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s recent remarks about alleged anti-Semitism in Hungary as “exaggerated” and based on “distorted information” and “intentionally mistranslated sentences”.

Source: MTI