Patriots without a Homeland

Book excerpt: Patriots without a Homeland dissects an important underexplored theme in Hungarian Jewry: Modern Orthodoxy. This study clearly demonstrates that beginning from the late nineteenth century, a strong modernizing trend developed within Orthodoxy based on the adoption of Hungarian national identity alongside the preservation of tradition. Modern Orthodoxy was receptive to the Hungarian language, culture, and religion. However, the attempt to integrate failed. The book traces the journey of Hungarian Jews from Emancipation to the Holocaust and seeks to understand the reasons for the Jews’ complete trust in Hungarian integrity. For instance, why did they believe until the very last moment that the Holocaust would not affect them? How could they fail to notice the impending disaster? This is the story of a community that felt rooted in the land and contributed greatly to its well-being, but was eventually rejected: the story of patriots without a homeland.