Synopsis Set in post-war Communist Hungary, in the fictional town of Hajdubékes, Never, Again is the story of seven-year-old Tomi Wolfstein, the son of Holocaust survivors who have never told him anything about their past experiences in the concentration camps of World War II. When the story opens, in the fall of 1956, the boy is about to start school. […]
If architect József Fischer had his way, much of central Budapest as we know it today would have been gutted, making way for what may have been considered seventy years ago as a groundbreaking modern utopia. The Urbanista blog, associated with the Index news site, dug up some fascinating plans and proposals from 1946, for how Budapest might look in […]
Hungarian journalist Katalin Erdélyi submitted a referendum proposal to the National Election Commission, in the hope of giving Hungarian citizens the right to vote on whether Budapest should continue its bid to host the 2024 Summer Games. Both the Hungarian government and the Budapest municipal government are enthusiastically supporting the bid to host the Olympics in the Hungarian capital, even […]
August 20th is a National Holiday commemorating Stephen I. who ruled Hungary from 1000 until his death in 1038. When I was growing up in Debrecen this holiday was called Constitution Day, now it is again St. Stephen’s Day. It is also the day of the “new bread”, the first bake from the virgin harvest and in Debrecen, this is […]
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I saw the Hungarian film entitled Fever at Dawn (Hajnali Láz). This feature film was directed by Péter Gárdos based on his bestseller about his father’s quest to find healing and love after World War II in the short time the doctors said he had left. I was interested in the movie […]
Katinka Hosszú represented Hungary in Rio and she had a fabulous Olympics. She won three gold medals and one silver, a truly astounding sport achievement! Last May an editorial appeared in the Arizona-based magazine Swimming World that questioned whether Hosszú uses performance enhancing drugs. The commentary by Casey Barrett was entitled: Are Katinka Hosszú’s performances being aided? Barrett indicated that […]
Hungary has good reason to be proud after the first full day of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Twenty-seven year old swimmer Katinka Hosszú not only won the gold medal in the 400 metre individual medley, but also beat the world record with her time of 4:26.36. This distinction was previously held by Ye Shiwen, a Chinese swimmer. Ms. […]
The premise of fledgling director Viktor Szűcs’s film sounds like the beginning of a classic joke, but this 33 minute production is actually a fantastic short documentary on how Hungarians of different faiths share a meal with other. It is also a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the popular Hungarian reality television show called Fish on the cake (Hal a tortán). For […]
Hungarian society is a largely secular one, even though references to the nation’s Christian heritage and “character” feature prominently in the discourse of the current government and in its press. Yet the Orbán government’s approach to refugees, the migration crisis and to those who are most vulnerable within society stands in stark contrast to the “brand” of Christianity espoused by Pope […]
We’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation in Hungary and, among other places, my wife and I visited Debrecen, my birthplace. Every year we see relatives there. I love this large, sleepy Eastern-Hungarian town – the “Calvinist Rome.” When I was a child the city’s open-air market was located on Rákóczi Street, always a colorful cavalcade of local sellers, called […]
