MAZSIHISZ AFRAID OF BIRD FLU

Gusztáv Zoltai, managing director of MAZSIHISZ (Association of Jewish Communities in Hungary) has called on the Jewish cemetery in Kozma street to separate at least 300 burial plots in case of a massive epidemic.

The associaton had been requested by the state to work out a detailed emergency programme to tackle the epidemic but Christian churches have not received similar requests. According to the document in the possession of Magyar Nemzet there is a plan to operate an alert chain of community workers but the reference to the bird flu is avoided. The document calls on the Jewish organizations to store drinking water and dry food and urges them to keep the hygienic regulations and the kosher rules. Gusztáv Zoltai wants all communities report immediately if there are serial illnesses found in any of them.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó