In its ‘Beyond the Óperencia’ series, Magyar Krónika is looking at the meeting points of America and Hungary, and at Hungarians in America, from penniless peasants to political emigrants and soldiers of fortune. In this part, let us explore the story of a 1848 émigré, László Újházy, who established a settlement with his family and other Hungarian refugees.
‘When I heard the saying, “Survivors carry the credentials of the forever silenced”, it really touched me. Due to the values instilled in me by the Hungarian scouts and the Piarists, as well as the American attitude of giving back, it slowly emerged as a conviction that I had a responsibility to help others who were less fortunate.’
Minister of Justice Bence Tuzson of Hungary was at a commemoration ceremony to mark the 221st anniversary of the birth of 19th-century Hungarian statesman Ferenc Deák in Kehidakustány, Hungary on Friday. Deák, one of the chief architects behind the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, ‘set an example for those who are active in public life,’ Minister Tuzson stated at the event.
‘Among the executed were counts and commoners, descendants of Croatian and Serbian border guard families, imperial Germans, and native Armenians. Some were connected to the Hungarian cause by family ties, others by their unit or simply by their wealth and social status. But all of them were men who believed that once they had sworn an oath to the Hungarian constitution at the behest of the emperor, they had to defend that constitution—even against the emperor himself.’
Both Emese and her husband, László Kerkay have been cultivators of the rich Hungarian historical and cultural heritage and overall active contributors to the life of the Hungarian community of Passaic, New Jersey, having served at the Hungarian school for over 30 years: Emese as teacher and principal, László as treasurer. Emese has also been an active scout since the age of six and was a founding member and for 25 years curator of the American Hungarian Museum of Passaic.
‘If we are looking for a more idealistic, right-wing conservative solution to the puzzle, we have to question the current form of the EU as it is. It may be appealing to the economic right, but it contains very little for the social right. This would mean either a radical restructuring of the EU to align towards more of these values or its reduction to a mere economic cooperation platform.’
‘The ideological models that had emerged at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries…had transformed social thinking and humanity’s view of the world to such an extent that it was impossible to maintain and preserve the earlier, semi-feudal Europe. This in turn meant that ethnicity and nationality, previously considered less significant elements…became a determining factor, leading not only to an exploration of the historical past of a given community, in the search for national heroes, but also to a demand for political unification with ethnic or linguistic compatriots within a single country.’
‘On 10 March this year, the author of these lines has only one wish: that a miracle may happen in the modern, so-called democratic Romania, and it may become like it was in the 1950s, or even like in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, in the 13th and 16th centuries. Because, if that happened, it would give freedom and autonomy to Szeklerland as in a true 21st-century European—and a European Union—country…’
One hundred programmes are being organized this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and Türkiye. The programmes of the 2024 Hungarian–Turkish cultural season will run concurrently in the two countries for one year.
The event also hosts an online charity auction, with proceeds this year benefiting the Opera House Ballet Students Foundation.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
