This Christmas, we’re offering our readers at HFP a little historical glimpse into the holidays for immigrants to the U.S. in 1908, through the eyes of Miss M. L. Woodberry. Tens of thousands of Hungarians immigrated to Canada and the Unites States in the first decades of the tentieth century. Those arriving in the U.S. would have experienced Ellis Island. We’ll […]
Our readers will recall the controversy surrounding plans to erect a statue to virulent anti-Semite and interwar politician Bálint Hóman in the town of Székesfehérvár. Those plans have been scrapped and the activist group at the centre of the campaign against the monument, who are also behind a moving alternative memorial to the Holocaust in Budapest’s Freedom Square, issued the […]
Proemcards by Montreal author Endre Farkas – a combination of prose, poetry and reflections on a journey to Hungary after having fled decades ago – continues from Part 2 and Part 1. 7. Today was the unveiling. It was 35 degrees Celsius outside. I haven’t been able to sleep through the night since we arrived. The air-conditioning only wets the carpet and […]
During the last week of November, I received a phone call asking for me to attend a meeting at the office of the Honourary Consul General of Hungary in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Csaba Latorcai, Deputy State Secretary for Priority Affairs from the Prime Minister’s Office in Hungary, requested a sit down meeting with me to discuss Hungarian Roma in Canada. […]
The Hungarian-American Coalition has somewhat surprisingly joinded a growing chorus of individuals and organizations in North America condemning the Orbán government’s decision to provide 15 million forints in funding for a statue in memory of interwar antisemitic politician and Minister of Education Bálint Hóman, who was among the most enthusiastic supporters of Hitler’s Germany, even as some in the government […]
Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, had some sharp words this week, regarding plans to erect a statue in memory of historian Bálint Hóman, Hungary’s Minister of Religion and Education between 1932 and 1938, and again between 1939 and 1942, during the fascistic Horthy era. The statue is planned for the western Hungarian town of Székesfehérvár. While […]
Proemcards by Montreal author Endre Farkas – a combination of prose, poetry and reflections on a journey to Hungary after having fled decades ago – continues from Part 1. 4. Back at the Thermal and Wellness Hotel, I took to the Baths. The Baths were another turn-of-the-century luxury, a cure, a social activity for the wealthy. It also became a […]
The following pieces are based on my 2010 visit to Hungary and a journal that I kept while there. They are in a form I call “proemcards.” Proemcards are a hybrid creation of mine composed of prose and poems, thoughts, observations, impressions and experiences I had during my stay. This is the first part in a series to appear in […]
HFP’s Hungarian-language sister publication, the Kanadai Magyar Hírlap, published a lengthy and–we think–insightful interview with András Heisler, the President of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz), during his official visit to Canada this week. Mr. Heisler was coming alongside Deputy State Secretary Csaba Latorcai and spent five days in Canada, meeting with various levels of federal government, including the […]
On Monday, the European Commission registered what in the EU is called a European Citizens Initiative (ECI), which is calling for the Union to invoke the dreaded Article 7 against the Orbán government, in response to systemic rule of law violations, xenophobia and the disregard for the values of liberal parliamentary democracy. An ECI is actually a new mechanism in […]
