MEP Gyöngyösi about the Seder dinner at the US Embassy in Pesach

Márton Gyöngyösi wearing kippah during the dinner. Photo: facebook.com/hungary.usembassy

András Heisler, President of the Mazsihisz, would like an apology from MEP Márton Gyöngyösi for his statements in 2012. At the seder dinner hosted by US Ambassador David Pressman, Heisler told Gyöngyössi that his name had a bad ring in Jewish circles, but also indicated that they saw the party’s change as a good direction.

In response, the Jobbik chairman said that he had apologised on the next day of his speech, and several times since then. He wrote on Wednesday on Facebook:

The Passover is a celebration of the birth of freedom as well as the birth of the Jewish people.

Let me thank the US Ambassador once again for inviting me to this celebration. Let me thank the Hungarian and foreign, Jewish and non-Jewish people who sat for this event with me at the table. It was great to talk about fundamental human values and desires such as freedom, for example. I learned a lot.

For me, one of the highlights of the evening was when a member of the company stepped up to me and said: In the third century, the famous wise Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish taught that “when a person turns himself around, regrets his past and does good, that is such a powerful act that his sins become merits.” I knew what he meant.

I knew he was addressing me. I answered: “I would like to do as much for the peace and safety of Hungarian Jews and Hungary in general that it could make us forget the bad and misguided sentences I said earlier.” Even back then, I did not want to offend anybody, especially our Jewish compatriots.

I disown those statements of mine and I apologize for them again now.

Freedom was taken away from us by the current government in Hungary, so every celebration that focuses on regaining freedom, including the Passover, is extremely important for all of us. Jews and Christians, too. We know we have to fight for it, and we also know we are not alone in this fight. The Eternal God was with the people of Israel, and he delivered them from the Egyptian bondage. So deliverance is always God’s work. That’s what the Passover Seder dinner reminded us.

Let’s fight together for a free Hungary. I will do my share.