This poster, written in Hebrew and Hungarian, advertises a meeting of Hungarian immigrants associated with Mapai, the Workers Party of the Land of Israel. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the future of the Hebrew State. The poster highlights the names of the three speakers who were all immigrants from Hungary: Israel Kastner, a politician in the Mapai party, Moshe Schweiger, a member of the editorial board of the socialist newspaper Davar, and Hillel Danzig, a representative of the Ichud Olami socialist party. The meeting was held on a Saturday morning at the end of December 1947, after the UN vote but before the declaration of the State of Israel.
The Workers Party of the Land of Israel (Mapai or the Labour party) was established in 1930 and had a very central role in the politics of Israel both during the British Mandate period and the early years of the state. This poster refers to a meeting planned by the Hungarian branch of Mapai to discuss the future of what they termed “the Hebrew state,” maybe due to the fact that the state had not yet been established and its official name was not clear.
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Rudolph (Israel) Kastner - Rudolph (Israel) Kastner was a Zionist leader already in Hungary. When World War II broke out, he established a centre to help Jewish refugees escape from the Nazis. When the Nazis invaded Hungary, Kastner negotiated with them to save Hungarian Jews. The original plan had been to exchange 10,000 Jews for money, gold and diamonds, but ultimately Kastner managed to save only 1,684 Jews who were transported by train to Switzerland via Bergen-Belsen. Kastner eventually moved to Israel and became a member of parliament for the Mapai Party. In 1953, Kastner was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and selecting associates, family, and wealthy Jews to be included in what became known as the “Kastner Train.” The court case ended in 1955 when the judge decided that Kastner had in fact “sold his soul to the devil.” The Israeli government decided to appeal on Kastner’s behalf, an action that led to the collapse of the government. The Supreme Court overturned most of the judgement against Kastner in 1958, and in his summary Judge Shimon Agranat stated: “Kastner will be judged by history, not by a court.” However, this came too late for Kastner who was assassinated on March 4, 1957 in Tel Aviv.
Jewish Community of Hungary - At the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population of Hungary numbered around 825,000; after the war, only 140,000 remained, many of whom left Hungary, immigrating to Israel and other Western countries. Among the Hungarian immigrants to Israel many – for example, Yisrael Kastner, Yosef Lapid, Ephraim Kishon, Moshe Zanbar, and Dosh – became leading figures in fields such as politics, journalism, literature and the arts, industry, and the economy.
