The U.S. ambassador to Romania, Hans Klemm, recently visited the Romanian town of Sfântu Gheorghe (in Hungarian Sepsiszentgyörgy), which has a majority ethnic-Hungarian population. Mayor Árpád Antal, an ethnic Hungarian himself, asked him to stand behind a flag to make a photo. The flag is the so-called Szekler flag which is controversial in Romania; it is illegal to fly on […]
US Jewish leaders are outraged that Hungarian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Levente Magyar incorrectly claimed that they had described recent comments about antisemitism in Hungary as “exaggerated.” The remarks concerning antisemitism in Hungary were actually made by US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who in a speech about global antisemitism referred to recent developments related to the […]
Slomó Köves is 37 years old and he claims to be a Rabbi. I’m not so sure. Recently he willingly joined Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s xenophobic Prime Minister while Orbán declared that no refugees can enter Hungary. “We don’t want them,” Mr. Orbán said, “We don’t want Muslim people in our country.” Mr. Orbán didn’t spare Hungarian taxpayer’s money when ordering […]
Katrina Lantos Swett, 60, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the mother of seven children. She is also the daughter of the late California Congressman Tom Lantos, a Hungarian native, who was the only Holocaust survivor to be elected to the US Congress. She also served on the United States Commission on International Religious […]
As always, the 59th San Francisco Hungarian National Day celebrations were held in beautiful Golden Gate Park. My wife and I attend every year. Many of you might be surprised to learn that the weather is quite cold in August in the Bay Area. You need a jacket, may not expect much sun; it is mostly foggy in San Francisco, […]
A small Hungarian-American group has started a letter-writing campaign to convince President Obama to receive Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, at the White House when he comes to Washington in October to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Mr. Orbán has never received an official invitation to the Oval Office and President Obama has voiced serious concerns […]
Hungary’s utterly racist political journalist Zsolt Bayer has received the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross from the President of Hungary János Áder. Mr. Bayer is a founding member of the ruling Fidesz party and a friend of Viktor Orbán, the country’s authoritarian Prime Minister. (Read more here.) Mr. Bayer is a columnist for the rightwing daily Magyar Hírlap. […]
August 20th is a National Holiday commemorating Stephen I. who ruled Hungary from 1000 until his death in 1038. When I was growing up in Debrecen this holiday was called Constitution Day, now it is again St. Stephen’s Day. It is also the day of the “new bread”, the first bake from the virgin harvest and in Debrecen, this is […]
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I saw the Hungarian film entitled Fever at Dawn (Hajnali Láz). This feature film was directed by Péter Gárdos based on his bestseller about his father’s quest to find healing and love after World War II in the short time the doctors said he had left. I was interested in the movie […]
Standing next to a boat used by refugees to reach safer shores, Germany’s Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki begged Europeans not to turn a blind eye to the plight of migrants. “Someone who lets people drown in the Mediterranean also drowns God — every day, thousands of times.” Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster asked Catholics to protest against immigration policies that […]
