Egy avítt jezsuita antijudaista Bangha Béla SJ a zsidókérdés útvesztőiben
An Old-Fashioned Jesuit Anti-Judaist Béla Bangha Sj in the Labyrinth of the Jewish Question

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims to explore from a new perspective the rather ambivalent relationship of Bangha Béla SJ to the Jews, partly on the basis of hitherto unused sources and partly by reassessing old ones. On the one hand, the author rejects those older views which regarded Bangha as a demagogue rooted in Nazi-type racism, a mere „pogrom-priest” who would have unleashed anti-Jewish violence by his speeches, or dreamt in his works about the final extermination of the Hungarian Jews. On the other hand, he definitely abstains from clearing father Bangha of the charge of anti-semitism, which is clearly manifested in his writings analyzed in the paper. Yet Bangha’s anti-semitism is analyzed here basically in the framework of his ideas on social progress, social justice and state redistribution. At the same time, a similar emphasis is put on the missionary calling of Bangha, and on the influence exerted upon his relationship with the Jews by his activities as a „rescuer of souls”.

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