Almost 40 years ago I was a newcomer to San Francisco. On weekends we would hang out at North Beach with friends at the Caffe Trieste and always had a mandatory stop at City Lights the legendary (and cozy) bookstore on Columbus Ave. I often chatted with the tall, friendly older guy behind the cashier’s desk. He sat on a […]
On the road that escapes Jerusalem and winds along the ridge to Emmaus, two disillusioned youths drag home their crucified dream. They had smelled messiah in the air and rose to the scarred and ancient hope only to mourn what might have been. And now a sudden stranger falls upon their loss with excited words about mustard seeds and surprises […]
On June 20, 1947 the iconic dome of St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest burned down. The cause of the fire was worker’s negligence during the roof’s renovation. Firefighters desperately tried to save the cupola, but their equipment couldn’t reach the height of the building. In the surrounding streets thousands of citizens watched with horror the struggle of the firefighters. (Watch […]
Fifteen Caucasian opera singers from the Hungarian State Opera signed a document claiming that they identify, in part, as being African American. Szilvester Ókovács, the Opera House’s director, asked those with roles in George Gershwin’s piece Porgy and Bess to identify as African-American in writing, in order to get around the fact that Ira Gershwin insisted that these roles only be filled […]
On March 18 Susan Polgar was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in a special event in St. Louis. She gave an inspiring speech to chess players and supporters of the chess community. Polgar is the youngest woman ever to be inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. She joins Bobby Fischer, Edward Lasker and founding father […]
It is rarely mentioned in Hungary that many Christians perished in labor and concentration camps during the Hungarian Holocaust. One Christian group, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, was viciously victimized. Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to join armies, participate in political life or take a national oath. The origin of their faith goes back to the Bible Student movement of the 1870s founded by […]
Attila Szász is an exceptionally talented Hungarian film director. A couple of years ago I saw his film Demimonde (Félvilág) at the Tiburon Fim Festival and I found it intriguing. His latest film Eternal Winter (Örök tél) takes place at the end of World War II when many ethnic Germans were rounded up in Hungary and sent to labor camps […]
On March 15th Hungarians commemorate the Revolution and War of Independence against Habsburg rule in 1848-49. We remember the legendary military leader, General Joseph Bem. Bem was born in Poland in 1794 probably in a Catholic family. As a trained military engineer, an expert with guns, especially with gun powder, he was one of the leaders of the Polish insurrections […]
The Czech comedian, Vlasta Burian was born in 1891 in Reichenberg, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today Liberec, Czech Republic) as Josef Vlastimil Burian. He was funny as a child, a born entertainer, and later became a popular comedian in the newly formed Czechoslovakia. In 1925 he opened his theatre in Prague and started to make movies. The Undertaker and The Inspector General […]
Colleagues and friends of the Wirth Institute at the University of Alberta strongly support the Hungarian Academy of Sciences! To show their solidarity, members of the Institute in western Canada join the live chain demonstration at the Academy building in Budapest with books published by “Akadémiai Kiadó” from the University of Alberta Libraries. Students, teachers, researchers and people of all […]
