On Tuesday, November 8th, Americans – among them 1.5 million with Hungarian roots – will go to the polls to elect the next president of the United States. Secretary Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic nomination and she is the most qualified candidate. Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump wins both will present challenges for relations with America’s European Union […]
On October 23 about 300 of us were eagerly waiting for Willie Brown at the Green Room of the San Francisco War Memorial Center. The elegant hall has a gorgeous wraparound balcony with a magnificent view of San Francisco City Hall. The bar was packed with California wines, tasty hors d’oeuvres and we were all dressed up to hear Willie, […]
We don’t have Halloween in Hungary, we have All Saints Day! – states the poster. Halloween is not a desirable holiday for conservative Christian Hungary. In Hungary “Mindenszentek” (All Saints’ Day) and “Halottak Napja” (All Souls’ Day) have always been important Catholic holidays. Quite recently, in 2000, All Saints’ Day even became a National Holiday. Right wing political parties, especially […]
I was surprised. Actually, I was dismayed to see US Ambassador to Hungary Colleen Bell delivering remarks at the statue unveiling of the Budapest Lad when on Sunday October 16, the sculpture was inaugurated to commemorate the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The unveiling took place in Scott’s Circle at 1500 Rhode Island Ave, NW, Washington DC on the grounds of the […]
Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks is in Budapest for the shooting of his new movie “Inferno”, a sequel to the blockbuster “The Da Vinci Code.” He loves Budapest and says Mexican food is fabulous in the Hungarian capital. I know his favorite Mexican restaurant, but I cannot tell you. Hanks values his privacy and I swore to the owner that I […]
What a surprise! The San Francisco War Memorial Center will host the 60th anniversary commemoration of the 1956 Revolution. On October 23 the keynote speaker will be Willie Brown, the former Speaker of the California State Assembly who was the 41st mayor of San Francisco. The 82-year-old Democrat is a dynamic speaker and overall fantastic guy. I once met Brown […]
Katalin Bogyay is the Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations and on Saturday, October 15, the 60-year-old diplomat will be a special guest at a New York synagogue. Sutton Place Synagogue has invited Ms. Bogyay to their Sabbath service to give a talk entitled – Revival of Hungarian Jewish Culture & the Fight Against Anti-Semitism. No doubt Ms. […]
The U.S. ambassador to Romania, Hans Klemm, recently visited the Romanian town of Sfântu Gheorghe (in Hungarian Sepsiszentgyörgy), which has a majority ethnic-Hungarian population. Mayor Árpád Antal, an ethnic Hungarian himself, asked him to stand behind a flag to make a photo. The flag is the so-called Szekler flag which is controversial in Romania; it is illegal to fly on […]
US Jewish leaders are outraged that Hungarian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Levente Magyar incorrectly claimed that they had described recent comments about antisemitism in Hungary as “exaggerated.” The remarks concerning antisemitism in Hungary were actually made by US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who in a speech about global antisemitism referred to recent developments related to the […]
Katrina Lantos Swett, 60, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the mother of seven children. She is also the daughter of the late California Congressman Tom Lantos, a Hungarian native, who was the only Holocaust survivor to be elected to the US Congress. She also served on the United States Commission on International Religious […]
