'Israel Is an Amazing Country!' Former Anti-Semite to Make Aliyah - CBN News Dale Hurd

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'Israel Is an Amazing Country!' Former Anti-Semite to Make Aliyah (from Hungary)

09-23-2016

CBN News Dale Hurd

A former rising star in a Hungarian party known for anti-Semitic views will move to Israel and become an Israeli citizen. Csanad Szegedi told the newspaper Ma'ariv that he will make aliyah with his wife and two children.

In a 2013 interview with CBN News, the 34-year old Szegedi, who was once widely viewed as an anti-Semite, shared how he discovered that he was Jewish.

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," he recalled. "I was shocked -- first of all because I realized the Holocaust really happened."

At first, Szegedi tried to hide his Jewishness and act like nothing had happened. But he realized he couldn't stay in his party, Jobbik. 

"It started such a crisis in my consciousness," he told CBN News. "I realized I can't take part in any organization that has anything to do with anti-Semitism. And after my Jewish origins were disclosed, they really didn't want to see me in the party anymore."

He contacted a local rabbi, who first thought it was a joke. Szegedi started taking classes at the synagogue, learning Hebrew and the meaning of kosher and Shabbat.

Szegedi said his life completely changed.

"It's changed everything. It's like being re-born, 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."

In the interview with Ma'ariv, Szegedi said, "Israel is an amazing country, and I believe that every Jew who lives in the Diaspora seriously considers making aliyah to Israel, at least once in his life. After the nightmares that my relatives underwent in the Holocaust, my family and I very much want to be part of the positive dream that Israel constitutes for us."

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