Our colleague Eszter Neumann spoke to Mérce about the privatisation of education and the motivations and social processes behind it.

On April 9, 2024 at a book launch in Cluj Napoca, Nándor Bárdi presented and analysed the 25 volumes of the book People and Contexts, edited by Vilmos Keszeg and published by the Transylvanian Museum Association

Our colleague Ferenc Eiler will give a lecture at the international conference "Brückenbauer – Grenz- und zeitüberschreitende Minderheitenfragen am Beispiel der deutschen Minderheit" organised in Budaörs by Jakob-Bleyer-Heimatmuseum and Deutsch-Ungarisches Institut (MCC) on 13th April 2024. His presentation is entitled: Die Frage der Ansiedlung in den identitätspolitischen Bestrebungen der ungarndeutschen Organisationen (1924–1945).

A research fellow of our institute, György Szerbhorváth, will give a lecture in Subotica on April 13, 2024, at the 14th Vojvodina Hungarian Scholars' Meeting, at the conference of the Vojvodina Hungarian Academy Council.

In the latest, 2024/4 issue of Magyar Tudomány, the journal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a thematic block entitled The Hebrew Bible from 21st Century Perspectives was published. The reader can get an insight into the results of Hungarian Hebraic-Judaic research. including one from our colleague Viktória Bányai.

Tamás Biró "Who Circumcised Abraham? Biblical Exegesis and the Cognitive Science of Religion", applies the approach, concepts and methods of a contemporary religious studies discipline, cognitive religious studies, to the story of Abraham's circumcision (Genesis 17). Kornélia Koltai, in her study "Restrictions on Poetic Freedom: Lessons from the Comparison between the Book of Amos and the Targum of Amos", compares the biblical book and its ancient-late ancient Jewish Aramaic translation, with a historical-social-historical perspective. Dóra Zsom, "The Magical Use of the Psalms: Shimmush Tehillim Manuscripts in the Kaufmann Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences", presents a work on the magical use of the Book of Psalms and manuscripts preserved in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Viktória Bányai's paper "Desecrated Torah Scrolls in the Light of Two Surveys" focuses on Torah scrolls desecrated in the Holocaust, using a published survey from 1945 and an as yet unpublished archival material from 1956.

The thematic block is available here and the full issue here.

The study by Csilla Fedinec, published in the Fórum Társadalomtudományi Szemle 2024/1, is freely available here. (In Hungarian language, English version forthcoming)

On 18th March, Viktória Bányai gave a lecture at the opening conference of the Gábor Sztehlo Memorial Year titled The sites and organisers of Jewish child rescue during and after the war . You can find a report on the conference on evangelikus.hu.

At our event last Tuesday, in connection with the film Nyersanyag (Raw Material), Martin Boross, the director of the film, Fanni Szántó, co-screenwriter, Rodrigó Balog, artistic director of the Independent Theatre, and our colleague Judit Durst, a researcher of the topic, whose work inspired the film, discussed the dependency relationships in Hungarian villages. Ágnes Kende wrote about the film and the event on Qubit.

On 22 March 2024, an international expert discussion will be held at the Uzhhorod National University on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first democratic parliamentary elections in the region, with the participation of Ukrainian members of Parliament, local government representatives and academics from Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Hungary is represented by Csilla Fedinec.

Tamás Turán will give a lecture (in Hungarian) at the John Lukács Institute on 18 March 2024, entitled Carl Schmitt and Israel's Local World War. He will examine the applicability of Carl Schmitt's concept of war to the Gaza-Israel conflict. The speaker is a Hebraist, his approach is unique and he analyses the situation from the perspective of the rabbinic tradition.

Place and date: 1083 Budapest, Ludovika square 1. Wing Building, John Lukacs Room: 18th March 2024, 14:00