This is an abridged version of the original interview first published in Hungarian on 777.hu.

I met Kata at the annual leadership training camp of the Association of the Hungarian Scouts in Exteris (KMCSSZ) in Fillmore, upstate New York, who convinced me to send my 10-year-old daughter to the next year’s Hungarian School Camp. Although the camp is primarily intended for Hungarian children born in the U.S. who don’t have a weekend Hungarian school nearby, my daughter took the invitation so seriously that it was impossible to talk her out of it. I visited the camp for a day as a journalist to interview the camp’s principal, who is also leading the Sándor Kányádi Hungarian School in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Reklám

This is an adapted version of the interview first published in Hungarian on reformatus.hu.

Reverend Zsolt Ötvös has been the pastor of the Magyar Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey for fifteen years. He previously served in Canada and then in Columbus, Ohio. In those Reformed churches where recent Hungarian immigrants and second-generation Hungarian communities can serve together, he could see God’s special blessing. During our conversation in the church at the time of the 2023 Hungarian Festival, the most well-known Hungarian event on the East Coast of North America, we could hear the merry noise of the fair and the stage performances in the yard. From time to time, children and parents preparing for the folk-dance performance stuck their heads into the room where we were talking, quite obviously feeling at home in the church.

Reklám

This is an abridged version of the original interview first published on 777.hu.

I met this always kind, smiling, and despite her 75 years incredibly active professor at the Meeting of American Hungarian Schools (Amerikai Magyar Iskolák Találkozója, AMIT) in September 2022. Then I learned that she is not only a Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics at the City University of New York (CUNY), but also the founder of the first Hungarian summer university in America and former Director of the Hungarian School Camp of the Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris. Afterwards she gave me a book about her mother, who lived for 102 years, and was a teacher in Hungary. She also told me that she was a candidate for the János Arany Medal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I asked her to summarize her wide-ranging achievements.

Reklám

This interview was first published in Hungarian on 777.hu.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Csaba Krasznai, Hungarian Reformed Bishop of the Calvin Synod Conference of the United Church of Christ and Honorary Consul of Hungary, and his wife, Beáta Krasznai, a teacher, psychologist, principal of the church’s Sunday school and the Nebuló Hungarian Language School, have been living and serving in Cleveland for more than 20 years. They recently celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary and are parents of three young adults.

Reklám

This interview was first published in Hungarian on 777.hu.

I first met Kálmán Magyar at the Pontozó Hungarian folk-dance festival, the biggest of its kind in North America held this year [2023] in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he was the president of the jury. I was also interested in his adventurous private life—he immigrated to America with his father at the age of 18, after his mother left with his twin sisters six years earlier—but he insisted that we should focus on the Hungarian American folk dance movement, in the revival and renewal of which he and his wife played a decisive role in the ’60s and ’70s, and which he himself didn’t think would still flourish in the diaspora fifty years later.

Reklám

This is an abridged version of the original interview first published on 777.hu.

I first met István in New Brunswick at Father Imre Juhász’ celebration of his 20th anniversary of priesthood. He has been serving the local Hungarian community for the past 45 years along with his wife Dr. Brigitte Mihályfi. István has been vice-president and president of the local Hungarian Catholic church’s council; served as president of the local Hungarian scouts’ Parent Organization; as a teacher, assistant principal and principal of the local Hungarian school; as treasurer, vice-president and president of the local Hungarian club to name just a few of the many hats he has worn.

Reklám