“Our data show that for Hungarian Jews, belonging to Jewishness is a subjective feeling,” said Budapest sociologist Andras Kovacs during an interview in Washington. Kovacs coordinated the survey.
“Objective things, like being active in the Jewish community, are at the other end of the scale.”
With about 100,000 Jews, Hungary’s community is the third largest in Europe outside the former Soviet Union. As in other post-communist countries, there has been a revival of Jewish communal activities since the fall of totalitarian rule, but only a small segment of the community participates.
The survey was based on interviews with 2,015 people selected to approximate a representative random sample, including the highly assimilated as well as active participants.
Survey results showed that more than half of Hungary’s Jews have earned a university degree, well over the national average.
In addition, Jews are generally well-off economically and possess a full range of modern home appliances — about 47 percent of all Jews sampled own computers, nearly 40 percent have cellular phones and nearly one-quarter have Internet access. Almost 90 percent own washing machines.
The survey was the first of its kind in a post-communist state, and was aimed at providing a basis for policy planning and outreach by Jewish organizations. It was funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Claims Conference, the AJCommittee and the Alliance of Hungarian Jewish Communities.