New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges. A 61-year-old Democrat, Mr. Menendez was charged with eight counts of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, and making false statements on government documents. He is the first senator to face federal bribery charges since another New Jersey Democrat, Harrison Williams was indicted in 1980, almost a quarter century ago. Menendez has […]
Recently, I had a chance to chat with Johannes Bloos the Deputy Consul General of the German Consulate in San Francisco, California. Mr. Bloos is a Saxon; his parents were part of this German speaking community in Brasov, Romania, before they immigrated to Germany. We talked about another Romanian-Saxon, Romania’s new president – Mr. Klaus Iohannis. His recent election was […]
The 25-year-old Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four, is supposed to be an alliance of four Central European states – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland andSlovakia – for the purposes of furthering European integration and advancing political, military, and economic cooperation. As it turns out the Visegrad Four is dead. In the last couple of months it has become clear that the Visegrad Four members fundamentally disagree on how to approach […]
Hungarian newsmakers didn’t like UN Ambassador Samantha Power’s criticism of the Hungarian Government’s attempt to rewrite World War II history – so they rewrote her speech. Why not? Hungarian news sources often ignore important stories, but in this case they went one step further; they turned the table and rewrote it. They added lines she never said, a rant about […]
I was saddened when I learned about the untimely death of Ildikó Zentai. In the last decade I saw Ildikó at various Hungarian events around the San Francisco Bay Area, said hello, we briefly talked, but we didn’t really know each other. Ildikó was a wife, a mother and a devout Catholic. She moved to the US from Budapest in […]
Shoah Foundation founder and Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg recently travelled from Los Angeles to Krakow to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp Auschwitz where over one million Jews lost their lives in World War II. In his passionate remarks Spielberg warned of the global rise of anti-Semitism. Today he can find anti-Semitism in his […]
On February 20, 2015, the New York Hungarian House (213 East 82nd Street) will stage a reading of works by Mr. Albert Wass, the late Transylvanian writer, who was convicted of war crimes after World War II. The event is being organized by a New York-based, Hungarian émigré group, Széchenyi István Társaság, led by Hungarian-American Mr. Ákos Felsővályi. It is […]
President Obama appointed Ms. Colleen Bell to serve as the United States’ Ambassador to Hungary and in December 2014 she was finally confirmed by the US Senate. Now she is in Budapest where she released a smart video message, sending greetings to the Hungarian people. Here is the video. She also visited the Sándor Palace where she presented her appointment letter to […]
Viktor Orbán is desperately trying to make his countrymen believe that he is a respected politician in the European Union. His participation in the Paris march might have provided a great photo opportunity, but his dismal record in stifling free speech at home has not changed. Reporters Without Borders (RWB) is a France-based international organization that defends freedom of speech. They […]
On October 28 six diplomats based in San Francisco gathered at Congregation Emanu-El to discuss the growing anti-Semitism in Europe. “The New Anti-Semitism in Europe” panel attracted close to 200 people at the synagogue, a surprisingly high number, considering that Game 6 of the World Series was playing on a television in a nearby room. European and especially Hungarian anti-Semitism […]
