Articles by: Hungarian Free Press

The Russian empire manipulates the Middle East to deflect attention from Eastern Europe

The Russian empire manipulates the Middle East to deflect attention from Eastern Europe

Once again, playing on their hatred toward Israel, the Russian empire manipulated a Middle East crisis by mobilizing Muslim support, thus deflecting attention from Eastern Europe. It happened in 1956, while crushing the Hungarian revolution and now in 2023 Ukraine. The Russian Empire has a historical pattern of manipulating the Middle East to divert international attention away from its actions […]

by · November 21, 2023 · East
Photo by Steven Kovács

The saga of public education in Orbán’s Hungary — A letter from a Hungarian school principal

This letter was written by an anonymous principal of a secondary school in Budapest. It is translated and edited for HFP by Steven Kovács. Organization and Bureaucratization From 2013 schools lost their independence, beginning with the principals. The authority was transferred to the 56 local districts in the country. These were grouped under the Klebelsberg Center. This resulted in the […]

by · November 7, 2023 · Focus
Statement of Ambassador David Pressman  Nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Hungary

Statement of Ambassador David Pressman Nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Hungary

Statement of Ambassador David Pressman Nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Senate Committee on Foreign Relations   June 23, 2022 Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, distinguished members of the Committee, it is an honor to return to this Committee as the President’s nominee to represent the United States in Hungary. I am grateful to President Biden and Secretary Blinken for the […]

by · June 25, 2022 · Focus
Cover source: Black Rose Books.

Journey to a Forgotten Revolution — An Interview with András B. Göllner

Introduction At the start of the new year, Black Rose Books and the University of Chicago Press announced the world-wide release of a new volume of essays on a revolution that threatened to derail not only the emerging world order after World War I but irritates to this day one of the most sensitive nerve endings of a people’s collective […]

by · January 16, 2022 · Focus
An invitation to participate in a research project on Hungarian refugees to Canada

An invitation to participate in a research project on Hungarian refugees to Canada

The Hungarian Free Press received the email below from researchers at the University of Toronto who are conducting a project on Hungarian refugees to Canada. Participants are paid an honorarium. We invite you to consider the invitation below if you arrived in Canada as a refugee. Dear Christopher Adam, We are recruiting individuals aged 50 and older, who are Hungarian […]

by · July 21, 2021 · Diaspora
Lilly Toth (1925-2021)

Remembering Holocaust survivor Lilly Toth

Richard Schnurbach, president of the Montreal Holocaust Museum and Daniel Amar, the organization’s executive director, co-authored a moving piece remembering Lilly Toth (née Gluck), a survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary, who died in Montreal on May 22, 2021.  We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Lilly Toth, Holocaust survivor and Museum volunteer. Lilly was passionate about […]

by · May 31, 2021 · Diaspora
Queer Budapest 1873-1961

Queer Budapest 1873-1961

The publication of Queer Budapest 1873-1961 by Anita Kurimay fills a gap in the history of homosexuality in Hungary. This is the first book in English dealing with the history of homosexuality in Hungary and Ms. Kurimay places the story in the context of Hungary’s turbulent history. At the dawn of the 20th century, Budapest became a growing cosmopolitan metropolis […]

by · May 20, 2021 · Culture
From Ferenc Andai’s memoirs to Ottoman expansion and Hungarian revolt — An invitation to two roundtables

From Ferenc Andai’s memoirs to Ottoman expansion and Hungarian revolt — An invitation to two roundtables

The Hungarian Studies Association of Canada is hosting a book roundtable discussion and a book launch as part of its annual conference, held under the aegis of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, and moving forward in a virtual format this year. While other sessions of the conference are open to registered members, the two book sessions are […]

by · May 19, 2021 · Culture
Jon Greenwald

Seventy-eight year-old Jon Greenwald is lobbying to be the next US Ambassador to Budapest

Seventy-eight year-old (!) Princeton and Harvard trained Jon Greenwald wants to be next US Ambassador to Budapest.  He has already contacted the Biden team and declared that he wishes to serve the US in Hungary.  Greenwald also wrote a letter to Béla Lipták (Hungarian Lobby) about his past Hungarian experience and motivations and we asked permission to re-publish it.  Here […]

by · May 9, 2021 · Politics
The Benedictine Abbey at Tihany with the Lake Balaton, Hungary in the background.  Photo: ilovebalaton.hu

An HFP contributor and his winemaking past featured in The New Yorker

András Göllner’s son, Adam Leith Gollner, wrote a long-form essay for The New Yorker entitled “Does Your Wine Really Taste Like Rocks?” with a focus on vineyards and wines in Hungary. The piece, at times quite atmospheric and lyrical, takes off from the land of memories, before weaving its way through the mysteries of wine. The author’s father owned a […]

by · May 6, 2021 · Culture