Historica is a popular Hungarian rock band. They play “national rock” which is a mixture a hard rock and even harder-core Hungarian nationalism. One of their songs is about the heroism of Mr. Albert Wass, a fascist and a convicted World War II criminal, who received the death sentence in absentia for murdering Jews and Romanian peasants. (Historica’s Albert Wass […]
The Pulaski Day Parade is an annual event in New York City to commemorate Kazimierz Pulaski, a hero of the American Revolutionary War. Pułaski was a Polish nobleman, a soldier and military commander, and “father of the American cavalry”. Born in Warsaw, he came to America to help in the cause of the Revolutionary War. He saved the life of […]
One of the treasured Hungaricums of my birth country is a special Tokaj wine called aszú, a sweet, topaz-colored wine. Aszú means “dried”, and the complex winemaking process uses botrytised (“nobly” rotten) grapes. This unique, special quality wine is cherished by millions all over the world, but I must confess, I never liked it. It is a bit too heavy, […]
A new organization has been announced to support and promote Hungarian culture in Canada. The Extra Hungariam Foundation (yes, Hungariam) plans to create a foundation “of significant financial proportion” which will provide perpetual funding to support Hungarian cultural activities in Canada. “Extra Hungariam non est vita,” in Latin, means “there is no life outside Hungary.” (You may find the foundation’s […]
Thanks for Mr. Pereházy’s prompt and courteous response to my article that he posted on his Facebook site. (You may read his note here.) From his response I gather that Mr. Pereházy has no intention of cancelling Ms. Pregitzer’s show. At the same time he assured us that the planned Sept 27 event won’t contain objectionable text. I assume that […]
Miklós Pereházy is the president of the Los Angeles based United Hungarian House. His center promotes Hungarian culture, language and tradition. Mr. Pereházy – an immigrant himself – is doing a good job, and recently he was reelected. He frequently invites performers, musicians, and actors from Hungary. The center organizes various events and occasionally serves tasty dinners for the patrons. […]
The Hungarian Government is reaching out to the county’s Jewish community. Mr. János Lázár, Chancellor Minister and a trusted confidant of Prime Minister Orbán, recently wrote a letter to the Alliance of Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) in an attempt to restore cooperation on the government’s Holocaust Memorial Year, a series of events planned to mark the 70th anniversary of Jewish deportations. […]
This week, in a reversal of their previous position, Mr. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party declared that the writings of author Imre Kertész, recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, are actually in sync with their philosophy and are putting him up for a high state award. Historian Dr. Mária Schmidt wrote a lengthy article declaring Mr. Kertész the Hungarian […]
Robin Williams, a comic and sitcom star, an Oscar-winning dramatic actor, died at the age of 63. He appears to have committed suicide. The news truly rocked North-America, television channels broke into their usual programming to make the announcement, and the news dominated online trending topics. Mr. Williams was a comic genius, a star of both movies and television for […]
Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog’s recent comments concerning the deportation of Roma from Hungary during WWII reminds me of some of his earlier faux pas. The Hungarian Free Press reported earlier that Mr. Balog has denied that Roma citizens were deported from Hungary. He went on to warn the Roma community that it must not focus on these wartime experiences […]
