Further on Hungarian Jewry: for some of the frum, maybe the frummest, it went beyond indifference. Rabbi Teichthal (or an associate of his, writing about him-I don’t have the source in front of me) remarked about the leading rabbis in Hungary before the Shoah: to carry on Shabbat, they put up an eruv. To charge interest, they issued a hetter iska. To carry debts over on Shmitta, they put out a pruzbul. To enjoy hot food on Shabbat, they allowed the blech and a little help from the Shabbes Goy. But for one thing they couldn’t find a hetter: to save their souls by moving to our holy Land. That they ruled out, because of … all those whom Ben Hecht blamed for the destruction of Hungarian Jewry.
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