This is an abridged version of the original interview first published on 777.hu on 4 August 2023.
Richárd Bóna was a final year seminarian in Pozsony (Bratislava, Slovakia) when his distant relative Fr. László Roskó, Pastor of St. Margaret of Hungary Parish in Cleveland, Ohio asked him to consider coming to America to serve the Hungarian community there. After finishing seminary in Cleveland and becoming an ordained priest, he served in English-speaking parishes for eight years, followed by his assignment in Washington, DC for further studies. In 2020 he finally became the Pastor of St. Emeric and St. Elizabeth Parishes. The latter is about to become a shrine.
On Aug. 1, 2023, The Library of Congress informed WJCU’s Hungarian-American community genre show, “Bocskai Rádió,” via email that the Hungarian website was selected for preservation in the Voices of Eastern and Central European Americans Web Archive.
In this collection, The Library of Congress digitally stores publications such as newspapers, web pages, printed material and photos from Eastern and Central European voices living in America.
Since 1984, “Bocskai Rádió, The Voice of Hungary,” has been on the air, serving Greater Cleveland’s Hungarian-American community. The program was first organized by a Hungarian student at JCU and remains one of WJCU’s longest community genre shows as well as the longest Hungarian language show in the nation’s diaspora.
“Bocskai Rádió” is supported by nationally-recognized Hungarian organizations such as American Hungarian Friends of Scouting, The Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris and The American Hungarian Federation from Washington DC. WJCU currently airs the show on Sundays from 2-5 pm.
Zsolt Molnar, director of Bocskai Rádió and chief editor of the corresponding website since 2019, illustrates the show’s ecstasy towards the news.“I was asked to give permission to the Library to archive the contents of the Bocskai Rádió’s website for current and future researchers.”
At first, he bypassed the email, interpreting the notification as a scam. After careful authentication, Molnar confirmed the email domain as the Library of Congress and celebrated the outstanding achievement.
“For the editors of the Bocskai Rádió, this achievement means that the work we do is important and valuable not only for us, but also for the world’s largest library.”
According to Molnar, the mission of the website and broadcast is to provide “a bridge between Hungarians living in the US diaspora and the Carpathian basin,” emphasizing that this reward would not be possible without the listeners of the show.
“This achievement is also a confirmation to our listeners that their financial support has been put to good use and led to the preservation of Hungarian heritage in the American diaspora.”
Bocskai Rádió’s web page is preserved in the Voices of Eastern and Central European Americans collection of the Library of Congress. (Bocskai Rádió)On behalf of the Hungarian-American community, Molnar accepts not only the honor but also the duty that he believes is bestowed upon “Bocskai Rádió” following this milestone.
“In the database of the US Library of Congress, there are only three other websites archived about Hungarians. Unfortunately, all three websites are inactive (online) as of today. So, the Bocskai Rádió’s website has a big task to keep being active as long as it can.”
After receiving the news, Molnar anticipates the future of the Hungarian show, having the show’s 40th anniversary on his radar. “Our plan is to engage more students and volunteers from the community. We also hope to increase the number of our supporters and sponsors to cover the expenses related to website maintenance and security.”
Most of all, he expresses his gratitude towards WJCU for accommodating a channel to reach the Hungarian community. “We are grateful for the air-time, the various opportunities and support WJCU provides to the Hungarian community living in greater Cleveland and people around the world, through its online reach.”
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.
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.
This interviewwas first published in Hungarian on 777.hu.
I first met József Salamon (a.k.a. Sala) as a member of the jury at the Pontozó folk dance festival held this year in New Brunswick, New Jersey. I found out that he has been the organizer of the famous Michigan Csipke Tábor (Csipke—meaning Lace—Camp), named after the Csipke Ensemble from Detroit, for the past 15 years. At this camp the best of the Hungarian American folk dance and folk music movement is showcased, along with some guest participants from the Carpathian Basin. Several people warned me about Sala, the artistic director of Csipke, before the interview: he is a tight-lipped Szekler; not sure if I can talk to him at all. When we found out that we practically grew up in the same town in Transylvania, Sala opened up and started to share his views on the folk-dance movement and camp as well as memories from his youth.
“The government meeting kicked off on Wednesday evening and we will close it at noon on Friday,” Viktor Orbán said on Kossuth Radio’s Good Morning, Hungary programme. In addition to current affairs, so-called big issues are also being discussed, PM Orbán said, speaking in a local studio halfway through the three-day off-site cabinet meeting held in Sopronbánfalva.
Palics, 2023. június 20.
A Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda által közreadott képen Aleksandar Vucic szerb köztársasági elnök (j2) és Ana Brnabic szerb miniszterelnök (j) fogadja Novák Katalin köztársasági elnököt (b2) és Orbán Viktor kormányfõt (b) a Magyar-Szerb Stratégiai Együttmûködési Tanács ülése elõtt a vajdasági Palicson 2023. június 20-án.
MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
The Serbian-Hungarian Strategic Council will hold its inaugural meeting on Tuesday. The event will take place in Palic, Vojvodina, where – besides the negotiations – several joint documents will be signed. Hungary will be represented by President Katalin Novak, PM Viktor Orban and several members of the government, while the Serbian side will be represented by President Aleksandar Vucic, PM Ana Brnabic and her cabinet.
“… What do they think? That Ukraine’s going to win in this counter-offensive and Russia’s just going to sit there and say, you’re right, so sorry we’re going to go home, we’re defeated, Ukraine’s defeated us. Or Russia’s going to say, we’re going to escalate,” US economist and political analyst Jeffrey Sachs told Hungary’s commercial HirTV news channel.
We owe thanks to God that Pope Francis wanted to encourage and strengthen the Hungarian Church and the Hungarian people with his visit, Cardinal Peter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom and Budapest, said in Budapest on Monday.
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.
Viktor Orban is the only European leader who sees the situation in Ukraine realistically, world-renowned American economist Jeffrey Sachs said in an interview with our newspaper. The Columbia University professor spoke about the possibilities of peace in Ukraine, Kiev’s NATO membership, and the death struggle of the world order led by the United States.
This interviewwas 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.
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.
Budapest, 2023. április 29.
Ferenc pápa a fiatalokkal rendezett találkozóján a Papp László Budapest Sportarénában 2023. április 29-én, háromnapos magyarországi apostoli látogatásának második napján.
MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Pope Francis meets with young people at the Papp László Sport Arena in Budapest and encourages them to “aim high in life”, reminding them that no one can take their place in the history of the Church and the world.
