Diaspora

National Holiday is celebrated with a Catholic Mass in Washington DC

National Holiday is celebrated with a Catholic Mass in Washington DC

I wrote last year about the importance of August 20th, Hungary’s National Holiday which is celebrated by Hungarians all over the world. (Read here.) August 20th is St. Stephen’s Day, when we remember Stephen I, the founder and first king of Hungary who ruled 1000-1038 and was canonized on August 20, 1083 by Pope Gregory VII. It has become an […]

by · August 24, 2018 · Diaspora
Hungary’s Consul General in Los Angeles, Mr. Tamás Széles.

Hungarian diplomats curtail free speech in North America

Hungarian diplomats in both Canada and the United States have engaged in a concerted effort to silence Hungarian Canadians and Hungarian Americans critical of the Orbán government and to have them removed from local Hungarian communities or ensure that they are otherwise isolated. The most recent incident comes from Los Angeles, where Hungary’s Consul General, Tamás Széles, demanded that the […]

by · August 17, 2018 · Diaspora
Dr. Steven Béla Várdy

In Memoriam: Béla Várdy

Steven Béla Várdy, one of the most preeminent historians of Hungary and Hungarians in the West, has died. His university teaching career spanned half a century. Today we share the obituary written by John J. Dwyer, Chair of the Department of History at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, PA. It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Professor […]

by · August 6, 2018 · Diaspora
Szeklers are not Hungarians.

“Szeklers are not Hungarians” – Budapest disagrees

Recently the Hungarian Academy of Sciences issued the statement: The dominant historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic standpoints consider the Szeklers to be an integral part of the modern Hungarian nation in ethno-cultural terms. This is the latest in an ongoing debate about the Szeklers (Székelyek in Hungarian). In February 2013 demonstrators appeared in front of the Hungarian Consulate in the […]

by · August 1, 2018 · Diaspora, Politics
In the musical program 14-year-old Brian Harper played Bartók’s Allegro Barbaro.

Cleveland Cultural Gardens – Hungarian Americans celebrate multiculturalism

On June 24 the Hungarian section of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens celebrated its 80th anniversary. Cleveland has one of the largest Hungarian American communities in the United States. I visited the garden a couple of years ago and highly recommend it to those who are interested in nature or Cleveland’s history. The Gardens were created at a time when the […]

by · July 18, 2018 · Diaspora
Wave of Hungarians deported from the US

Wave of Hungarians deported from the US

Last month Ms. Regina Zsigmond (42) and her husband Mr. László Kovács (45) were captured by US authorities at the Canadian border with their 2-year-old boy, Levente. The boy was separated from the parents and is currently being held in a Bronx shelter. The family entered the United States illegally and remain in federal custody. Their 2-year-old is in the […]

by · July 3, 2018 · Diaspora
Marta and Henry Fuchs

Supporting immigrants – a letter from refugees of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

On February 1, 2017 the Santa Monica Daily Press in California published a letter from Marta and Henry Fuchs, both refugees of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Today we witness the inhuman treatment of migrants in Europe, especially in Hungary; the horrendous separation of children from their parents in the Unites States and now the latest news that the US Supreme […]

by · June 27, 2018 · Diaspora
Joe Namath

Joe Namath – the story of the family name

Everybody recognizes 74-year-old Joe Namath, the retired American sport superstar, ex-football quarterback and actor. He played college football for the University of Alabama and became a sport icon while he played for the New York Jets. Namath was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. In his 13-year professional sport career he played 143 games in the […]

by · April 17, 2018 · Diaspora
Arthur Schwartz today, age 94.

A Hungarian Canadian’s story of liberation on Passover

My father, Arthur Schwartz, arrived in Canada 70 years ago as one of the 1,123 Jewish orphans that Canada admitted after the Holocaust. Born in Kosice, Czechoslovakia, in 1923, he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish working-class family. In 1938, Kosice was annexed to Hungary. Hungarian Jews were subjected to persecution and anti-Semitic laws such as work restrictions and the […]

by · March 30, 2018 · Diaspora
André Watts

André Watts, the African-American and Hungarian concert pianist

As part of our series on lesser known Hungarian Americans we introduce an American superstar, concert pianist André Watts. We feel that this piece is timely since the Orbán government is supporting “ethnic homogeneity” and envisions a white Christian Hungary defending Europe from the “hordes” of Africa and the Middle-East. André Watts is a living legend, a musical virtuoso and […]

by · March 15, 2018 · Diaspora