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My father was in the Hungarian resistance. Orbán's defeat reminds us why it mattered

JL;DR SUMMARY Jonathan Jacoby reflects on his father's involvement in the Hungarian resistance during WWII, contextualizing it with the recent electoral defeat of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistoryDemocracyTrump AdministrationAuthoritarianismResistanceViktor OrbánJd VanceFar Right MovementsHungarian Resistance

Places mentioned

Budapest, Hungary
"A protester holds an anti-Orbn placard during a demonstration in Budapest, Hungary on March 15, 2022."
Bucharest, Romania
"In 1943 and 1944, my father operated underground in Budapest and Bucharest."
Romania
"smuggle Jews from Hungary to Romania and onward to Mandatory Palestine."
United States
"The second-highest elected official in the United States, the country that gave so many Jews refuge after the Holocaust, embraced an ethno-nationalist leader."

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Cairo Item ID 79991
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-04-14 05:30:52 UTC
Curated 2026-04-14 08:30:50 UTC