How long and how strong is Diasporic memory? How many generations can it, or should it, encompass? And how deeply can generations that never even lived in the old country relate to its landscape, language, colors and tastes? In rigorous state-formation settings, wherein the new society (re-)constructs itself by resurrecting its ancient or traditional infrastructures and creating new indigenous ones, while at the same time devaluating the shorter-term memories of its many newly-arrived immigrant groups, the answers to these questions inevitably tend toward negative or dismissive. This mechanism works even more strongly among relatively small origin groups, like Hungarian Israelis, and as we move further and further away from the moment of their arrival to the new country. On the face of this far from promising inventory of Hungarianism among present-day young Israelis of Hungarian origin, it was surprising and heartening for me to discover an entire Hebrew-language Hungarian cookbook (more precisely a card-box formed book), one of the only two of its kind in our culture, entitled Goulash lagolesh – matamei hamitbakh hahungari ['Goulash for the Browser - Delicacies of the Hungarian Kitchen'] (Tel Aviv: LunchBox, 2009), created by Ofer Vardi (b. 1973), a food journalist and owner of a recipe and life-style press. The other existing Hebrew Hungarian cookbook is the work of the late journalist, writer and politician Yosef/Joseph Tommy Lapid, né Tomislav Lampel, who was born in 1931 in Novi Sad or Újvidék and died in Tel Aviv in 2008. Lapid's Hungarian cookbook (co-authored and edited by Ruth Sirkis) is titled Paprika – kakha mevashlim hahungarim ['Paprika – This Is How the Hungarians Cook'] (Tel Aviv: R. Sirkis Publishers, 1987). Based on the general portraits of the two Hebrew Hungarian cookbooks and those of their authors, as well as on the understanding that cookbooks are never just lists of recipes but also cultural products and culture preservers, my presentation asks and offers answers to these questions: What kind of Hungary is imagined (in Benedict Anderson's sense of "imagined communities" as formulated in his 1983 book by this title) by the authors of the two cookbooks and their expected or implicit readers? Which periods and events in Hungarian history are stressed and which times and issues are suppressed or barely glimpsed or misrepresented in each of the two books and why? What parts of the two books are specifically Jewish, or even Israeli? And last, in what ways are these two cookbooks also, or to no less extent, powerful, multi-sensory personal, familial and communal memory works whose proof lies not only in their puddings but also, if not more so, in their hindsight prudence?

Paul Olchváry and Zsuzsanna Varga, the editors of Hungarian Cultural Studies (HCS) since last September, will introduce AHEA's open-access, academic journal, which is set to publish its sixteenth annual issue in summer 2023. They will discuss their collaboration with HCS's new editorial team and recently expanded editorial board, as well as their vision for the journal's future. Prospective contributors--whether of articles, peer reviews, or book reviews--are encouraged to attend. In addition to providing an overview of the editorial and submission process, including scholarly and formal elements required of contributors, Paul and Zsuzsanna will engage participants in a workshop of exercises focusing on these questions: What are the key considerations to bear in mind before submitting an article, a peer review, and a book review? The session will welcome open discussion and an exchange of views and experiences.

Communities throughout the Hungarian diaspora are always at cultural crossroads; how can they slow down the inevitable forces of cultural assimilation and to what extent will they endure? How do they navigate the norms and aspects of the host country while trying to keep the values and traditions brought over from their ancestral home? A detailed analysis of one specific diaspora community, that of the Hungarians in Cleveland, can shed light on the broader context of Hungarians abroad. Touching on waves of emigration, ways of ascertaining a realistic number of the actual population, using ethnographic research and detailing how the community interacts on a regular basis, the study also places the city into a broader context of Hungarian-American communities and shows the linguistic factors enabling language proficiency well into the second and third generations of immigration. When most Hungarian-Americans eventually assimilate, the sociology of this city, which is but one of many in North America, shows how a group can use the power of community to maintain a strong ethnic identity, to live in two worlds simultaneously: one Hungarian and one American. Put simply, this paper shows how the Hungarian diaspora can maintain its language, culture, and traditions, and in so doing illuminates what it really means to be Hungarian in Cleveland.

My paper focuses on the history of Hungarian diaspora policy since the democratic transition of Hungary, and how this policy is being interpreted by the organizational leaders of the Hungarian diaspora communities. I use the term “diaspora” in the sense of emigrant communities; thus, Hungarian minorities in the countries neighboring Hungary do not form a part of the research. The paper submitted constitutes a part of my doctoral dissertation.
After the democratic transition in 1990, the issue of Hungarian minorities in the neighboring countries dominated Hungarian kin-state politics, but diaspora communities received only incoherent, sporadic attention and support from Hungarian governments. On the other hand, educational and cultural relations have been developed on non-governmental platforms, such as the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Balassi Institute, and the Hungarian Scout Association.
The paper discusses the intensified phase of Hungarian diaspora policy after 2010 in more detail. Diaspora policy is interpreted within the wider framework of kin-state policy, as well as in the general domestic political sphere. The institutional, legal, discursive, and practical items of diaspora policy are examined in the paper. Besides the descriptive and analytical approach, I also work with empirical data. I conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with organizational and community leaders of the Hungarian diaspora from all over the world about how they receive, interpret, and evaluate Hungarian diaspora policy. The empirical research provides a new approach for researching diaspora policy, as previous researches only used state-focused, top-down theoretical frameworks.

Lingering issues of language and culture for ethnic Hungarians remain stumbling blocks for stability, security and long-lasting democracy in Romania and the region. I discuss Hungarian measures calling for territorial and cultural autonomy in Romania (particularly Transylvania). Autonomy's historical place in the region and its complementary nature in EU doctrine are established, and examples of successful modern autonomy in Europe are compared to the current proposals. I deem autonomy feasible (though no panacea). A carefully-implemented measure of freedom for Hungarians in Romania will help create solid institutions and local regulations, originated by the very people who will live with them and encourage the unique culture of the region to survive and prosper in modern Europe.

Presentation emphasizes literature in English by Hungarian Jewish women who experienced the Holocaust, immigrated to the United States in the aftermath of WW II, and exhibited resiliency in their transcultural life journey. Women in this study were either hidden, protected by international passes or convert papers, relocated to ghettos and camps, or became displaced persons in the American Zone following the Holocaust. Their individual strengths, support garnered from earlier memories, and assistance from others helped these women achieve resiliency when rebuilding their lives in a new land.
From torn down elements on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of self-actualization that the Holocaust destroyed, these women sought to reconstruct the decimated basic needs (physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, and esteem and self-esteem) and move on through growth levels of knowledge, aesthetics, and self-actualization --toward transcendence (assisting and mentoring others). Poignant and inspirational messages recall lost families, communities, and culture, reveal accomplishments in reestablishing themselves in transplanted locales, and attest to myriad contributions to families, schools, communities, professions, and Holocaust education centers.
In this study, research questions were posed, over twenty-five books were examined by women over age five, teenagers, or in their early twenties in the Holocaust, and a resiliency framework was developed to assess their success in the USA. These courageous women overcame the consequences of Holocaust persecutions through remembrance, memorialization, and celebration and demonstrated a resiliency that ultimately denied the perpetrators of the Holocaust a victory.

Ethnic literature should be viewed more narrowly than simply Hungarian authors publishing in the U.S, whether in English or in Hungarian. My criteria are that it should reflect the life of the author, or the community, as lived in the United States. It should reflect the experiences of the ethnic group or of the author whether first or later generations. I will focus on writers from the late 19th century and mostly in the 20th. The earliest writers published mostly in newspapers with the works of George Szécskay and George Kemémy. Of more value are works such as the novel by Teréz Striban, The Streets are not Paved with Gold, published in 1961. She traces the lives of both immigrants who came at the turn of the century and of their children who moved out of the working class milieu of their parents, as well as that of later immigrants who often had to take menial jobs since their Hungarian credentials were not always accepted, and in any case they had to learn English, Another successful novel is Pat Valdeta’s The Other Sister (2008) who has strong Hungarian roots in spite of the Italian name and who presented at our meeting in Berkeley. Among poets writing more recently, I will examine Tibor Florian, Imre Sári Gál, and György Gyékényesi whose poetry spans styles and themes that range from the ethnic to the general experience of the poet.

My main research is how to understand the movement possibilities to young age children (6-12) and how help them the different shapes and colors to understand the basic motifs of the Hungarian Folk Dance.

Held in English, this folk singing workshop is open to conference participants of all musical and language backgrounds, with no previous experience required. The beautiful songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, such as those famously collected by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and the workshop materials will include the song words, English translations, and background information on the style. The workshop is led by repeat AHEA presenter Zina Bozzay, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm. Join us!

Held in English, this traditional Hungarian folk singing workshop is open to participants of all musical and language backgrounds. The beautiful songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, such as those famously collected by Bartók and Kodály, and materials include the Hungarian song lyrics, English translations, and background information on the songs and style. The workshop is held by Zina Bozzay, active teacher of Hungarian folk songs in both the US and Hungary, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm.

Held in English, this folk singing workshop is open to conference participants of all musical and language backgrounds, no previous experience required. The beautiful songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, such as those famously collected by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and the workshop materials will include the Hungarian song words, English translations, and background information on the style. Following her presentation at the AHEA Conference in 2022 on international folk song teaching methodology, the workshop is led by Zina Bozzay, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm. Join us!

At the 2007 AHEA Conference, Kálmán Magyar spoke about the Domján Centennial Project, a series of exhibitions and programs marking the hundredth birthday of the Hungarian artist József Domján. Just last year, at the Szeged conference, Lilla Szabó placed Domján alongside other Hungarian graphic artists in America. In this paper I will present an illustrated overview of the grand finale for the Centennial Project, held at the Mingei International Museum of Folk Art, Craft, and Design in San Diego, from March 2 to October 5, 2008. Under the expert eye of Guest Curator and AHEA member Joyce Corbett, “Hungarian Folk Magic: The Art of Joseph Domján” took shape. Rich in color woodcuts, the exhibition also displayed the carved woodblocks used to produce a number of the prints, ten tapestries based on designs by the artist, two doors painted by his wife Evelyn, family photos, and numerous objects from the Museum’s permanent collection, chosen to demonstrate the universality of the folkloric themes and motifs elaborated by Domján. I will show selected examples of this folkloric material (eagle, peacock, white deer, woodcutter, shepherd, woman spinning, etc.). In addition, I will spotlight Dómjan’s homage to Bartók, his trio of oversized prints on the subject of Bluebeard’s Castle. Finally, I will discuss the inspiration for two prints from the series that he based on Hungarian folk ballads, “The Fair Maid Julia” and “Ilona Budai” or “The Cruel Mother.”

AV requirements: Equipment for a Power Point presentation.

On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the 1956 uprising and freedom fight the Hungarian House of New York organized an oral history research that was followed by an exhibit depicting the stories of the freedom fighters and immigrants, displaying their personal artifacts and portraits from 1956. Our goal was to contribute in this way to deepening awareness the stories of Hungarians living as immigrants. The 1956 uprising and freedom fight is a pivotal point not only in the history of Hungary but in the history of American-Hungarian immigration as well. Of the 200,000 people who left Hungary then, 60,000 found a new home in North America. 1956 remains ever a keystone of respect accorded Hungary on the international plane. During the time of the Hungarian uprising the public in the West observed with helpless amazement as the people in a country behind the Iron Curtain rose up against the far stronger Soviet super power, putting their lives, their families and their livelihoods at risk in a heroic, tragic, according to the prevailing political logic irrational, struggle for freedom. Fighting for the same ideal which in the West is "the most abstract, but at the same time, the most indispensable" (Csaba Békés). The West received the refugees coming from Hungary with open arms. And in turn, the refugees became rapidly and successfully integrated into American society while, at the same time, they played and continue to play an active role in creating institutions, which preserve the social life of their local American-Hungarian communities.

This presentation describes how this project was accomplished and analyzes the results, comparing the lives and perspectives of Hungarians from the New York area who participated.

Following the end of World War II, between ten to fifteen million refugees found themselves in Postwar Germany. Although scattered all over in the remnants of Hitler’s empire, most of them congregated in southern Germany. The majority of these refugees consisted of Germans, who either fled from the invading Soviet hordes, or were expelled from their homelands by the new settlers. These refugees consisting of about twenty different nationalities, among them Hungarians, who constituted about 10-12 % of the total.

The situation changed in the fall of 1945 when about 90% of the Hungarians repatriated, and their numbers in Germany declined to 122,000. At the same time elections were held in Hungary, which was won by the ant-communist Smallholders Party. It collected 57% of the votes, versus the Communist Party that received only 17%. As Hungary was under Soviet occupation, the communists did not take their defeat easily. They started a campaign against all rival political parties, whose leaders were accused of being American spies. This lead to their arrest, conviction, and deportation to the Gulag. This also produced a new wave of refugees from Hungary.

Those Hungarians who remained in Germany were put into refugee camps, where they had to survive for years. They established various political and cultural institutions to make their lives tolerable. Most important among these were their Gymnasiums (eight–year preparatory schools) that were to perpetuate their original way of life. The first and most important among these camp schools was the Hungarian/Gymnasium of Passau/Waldwerke. Founded by Prof. Béla Csejtei as a coeducational school, it functioned from the fall of 1945 trough the fall of 1951, while after 1951 it absorbed virtually all of the smaller schools. By 1958 almost all of the remaining schools had been merged into the Passau/Waldwerke Gymnasium. The school was transferred to a permanent location in the fortress of Burg Kastl in the vicinity of Munich. There it remained until its dissolution in 2006.

Tamas Dobozy (1969) is a Canadian writer of Hungarian descent who has published four collections of short stories to date. Himself a second-generation Hungarian- Canadian, Dobozy highlights the impact of key historical events in the lives of subsequent generations. The stories of Last Notes and Other Stories (2005), Siege 13 (2012) and the most recently published Ghost Geographies (2021) reveal the heavy burden of the past and the lasting effects of transgenerational trauma suffered by the surviving victims and their descendants. This paper focuses on the role of Hungarian diaspora literature in terms of unveiling new meanings about the uncertain boundaries and the mutable nature of identities. In Dobozy’s stories, historical events often provide a meta-experience that connects the first-hand real-life events of past generations with that of the unlived and imaginary realms of their descendants. While Dobozy's stories confront us with the unclear questions of our past, they also hold up a mirror in which we can discover the multifarious nature of our own identities, and by exposing universally familiar griefs and losses, the stories also celebrate the powerful bond between our personal and national attachment to history.

Marta Fuchs was born in Hungary after the war to parents who survived the Holocaust. While her mother Ilona with two sisters lived through Auschwitz, Marta’s father Morton (Miksa) endured five years of forced labor battalions attached to the Hungarian Army in Russia. He survived as the only member of his family due to the courageous intervention of his last Commanding Officer, Zoltán Kubinyi, a devout Seventh Day Adventist who saved him and 100 other Hungarian Jewish men under his command. Unfortunately, Zoltán Kubinyi was taken as a POW by the liberating Russians, died a year later in a labor camp from typhus, was buried in an unmarked grave, and left behind a young wife and infant son.
This presentation will focus on the aftermath, the research and multigenerational impact of this extraordinary story of rescue and the recently published book, Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter's Tribute. Through Morton and Marta’s efforts, Zoltán Kubinyi was posthumously given the designation Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1990. In a televised ceremony in Budapest in 1994, his son received the Certificate of Honor and medallion on behalf of his father.
The story of rescue came full circle in Summer 2011 when Marta and her brother took their children (all in their '20s) back to Hungary to meet the rescuer's family. The rescuer’s son, now in his late '60s, of course never knew his father. With his wife and granddaughters – two teenage girls who are the great granddaughters of the rescuer Zoltán Kubinyi -- Marta's family discussed the heroic actions of this man of compassion and courage none of them knew but who has made an indelible impact on all their lives.

Hungarian writers of the 19th and early 20th century were concerned with Hungarian identity formation. At the same time, they were aware of the need to place Hungary in a European context. Sándor Petőfi proudly proclaimed himself to be a Hungarian but this was balanced by his interest in European literature and political movements. Other poets of the era also saw Hungarian identity as part and parcel of European identity. In the early years of the 20th century Endre Ady addressed the same issues. He was the champion of Hungarian values and traditions but advocated openness to western ideas and models. By the latter part of the century, in the work of Peter Huncik, Hungarian identity assumed cross-border dimensions as Hungarian writers now function outside of Hungary's political borders. A multi-ethnic approach is emerging in the literatures of the neighboring countries with Hungarian minorities and also within the diaspora. How this wider globalization will play out is yet to be decided.

Hungary was a transit point-for people fleeing the East and Communism; for goods crossing the Russian-held borders of Hungary and Austria. Hungarians too were in limbo, with its soldiers often in POW camps in the Soviet Union, and survivors returning from Nazi camps. Hungary was also politically facile-with a coalition government that presumed a hopeful reconstruction. The paper will be based on archival and secondary sources. The archival sources include materials recently microfilmed for the US Holocaust Museum and border patrol records at the Hungarian National Archives. I would arrive in advance of the conference to use the Szeged archives, which hopefully would add a local element to the paper.

Between 1945 and 1948 Europe experienced the largest mass migration of people in Modern European history before today. This paper will follow the illegal trafficking of people across Hungary’s borders, the administrative decisions that made it possible to cross “illegally,” especially in the mass movement in 1947, and the exigencies of travel and refugee maintenance in a war torn continent. The paper will explore the work of NGOs in Hungary and in the DP camps and touch on the fear that often dictated refugee actions as well as the response of the majority communities to their presence.

This period of migration has been subsumed into the Cold War pathos of the peoples fleeing the Soviets, or in the case of Holocaust survivors as an “interlude”, a limbo for those suspended between the Holocaust and new lives elsewhere. The present refugee crisis reminds us of the impact of this interlude on the political and medical structures, internal national/nationalist politics, and of course, the lives of the migrants.

The fate of women was different from men during the holocaust. They were ordered for Labor services only by the very end of the ordeal of the holocaust,after October 21, 1944 following the Ferenc Szálasi political take over. As the Head of State, he ordered women in Budapest, between 16 and 40 years of age to present themselves at the KISOK (Közép Iskolás Sportolók Országos Köre) Stadium with three days food supplies. By that time major deportation from the country-side that started at the beginning of April 44 that included women, was accomplished. The paper describes the women entering the profession, their choice of fields and their special fate during the Shoa.