Brill The Stranger at Hand: Antisemitic Prejudices in Post-Communist Hungary: 15 (Jewish Identities in a Changing World, 15)

Analyzing the results of several sociological surveys in post-communist Hungary, this book offers insight into the nature and social background of one of the most disturbing phenomena in a newly established European democracy: antisemitism. Review "[...]while the revival of anti-Semitism in post-communist East and Central Europe has been examined on more than one occasion by competent pollsters in the past, none of them matched the analytical finesse that Kovács displays in this book." Michael Shafir, Holocaust. Studii şi cercetări, vol iv, nr. 1 (2012). From the Back Cover In 2010 an extremist party with openly racist views, using barely concealed antisemitic language, received 17% of the votes in the parliamentary elections in Hungary. How can this awkward development in a newly established European democracy be explained? In this book the author examines antisemitism in post-communist Hungary in light of the empirical sociological studies of the past 20 years. The principal aim is to reconstruct the range, intensity and content of anti-Jewish prejudices as well as the factors affecting their change over time. The author also reveals the social background against which the newest political developments should be analyzed, and helps to determine whether in Hungary today antisemitism is only an ephemeral, temporary phenomenon or a gradually articulating, dynamic political ideology. About the Author András Kovács, PhD (1973) in Sociology, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary, Doctor of Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is Professor at Central European University, Budapest and senior researcher in the Institute for Ethnic and Minority Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His main research fields include Jewish identity and antisemitism in post-war Europe, socio-economic attitudes, and political choice.