Hungarian Conservative

Denisa Bott-Varga has been an active member of the 110-year-old Hungarian American Athletic Club in New Brunswick and leader of the local Csűrdöngölő Folk Dance Ensemble since the early 2000s, when she arrived to the US from Slovakia. In 2023, she received an Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic for her work in Hungarian diaspora culture and folk dance. In the interview she talks about her passion for folk dance and her efforts to build and preserve the Hungarian community in New Brunswick.

‘As a PhD student, I was very shocked to see that Harvard has had chairs of all sorts of relatively small nationalities (Slovak, Greek, Ukrainian, and so on), except Hungarian. These departments and chairs can only be created through international cooperation and the involvement of the business world, that is would need advocacy and money. We would need Hungarian academic departments and Hungarian professors in North America again.’

The Széchenyi István Hungarian School and Kindergarten in New Brunswick (New Jersey) celebrated its 50th anniversary. The welcoming speeches were followed by an award ceremony, where former school principal Gyula Varga was awarded; then, former principals shared their experience and thoughts on preserving our language and culture.

Gabriella Vajtay, an active member of the Hungarian community in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is the director of Reconnect Hungary. The interview with her revolves around the Reconnect Hungary Birthright Trip, a programme of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF), which enables North American young adults of Hungarian descent to visit Hungary.

A grand celebration was held at the Hungarian American Athletic Club in New Brunswick to mark the 70th anniversary of the Bornemissza Gergely Boy Scout Troop no. 5 of New Brunswick.

‘My whole life has always been guided by a sense of duty to my family. Now we might as well go home, but we wouldn’t be any happier there…Here we are part of our family and can help if needed. We live in a Hungarian community; we are happy here. If only we didn’t miss Hungary so much…’