Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2001 (13. évfolyam, 2-43. szám)

2001-08-10 / 30. szám

AMERICAN Hungarian Journal MEDITATIONS by Dr. Bela Bonis Pastor (562) 430-0876 First Hungarian Reformed Church, Hawthorne The Labyrinth of Life Text: Job 38:1-11 As the story of Job begins, the curtain rises and we look upon a drama that is as old as the hills and as new as the last bad thing that happened to us. The first few scenes move swiftly as Job is stripped of all his attach­ments in life. Wealth and pos­sessions, the lives of his sons and daughters, his health - all fall away from him as leaves from a tree in autumn. Only a shred of faith is left like that small leaf that clings, swinging bravely in a wind that never seems to stop blowing. After the ravages of suffering, it seems that all that remains of his former life is a wife who dares to voice the scaring possibility that Job could curse God and call it quits. Oh, yes, and let us not forget that this man still has friends. As it were. The friends come creeping forward after the blast, hesitant to get too close yet curious. At Xirst they can only stare, not daring to believe that this figure hollowed out by loss is indeed their old friend Job. Even their weeping recedes into a stunned blessed silence as they look upon the sunken-eyed Job, this .specter of a worst-case scenario. The friends are a study in how peo­ple come to terms with their own helplessness as they bear witness to the suffering of another. They cannot sit still for too long, and soon move into a litany of well-intentioned attempts to provide a structure of meaning for Job’s expe­rience. They fail to help their friend, and are left with the mighty force of their helplessness. Job is a walking Rorschach blot on the theme of suffering. We look into the grotesque drama and find the shape of our own suffering staring back at us. We recognize our own worst terrors, fears, losses and tragedies in the contours and silhouettes of Job’s story. The details change from one story to the next, but we share many of the questions voiced by Job and his friends: Why does God allow good people to suffer? Am I to blame for my suffering? How do I make the pain go away? Is there any comfort anywhere? Although Job begins with the question: "Why me?" thankfully he does not end there. (TO BE CONTINUED) Executed PM Still Under Scrutiny By Beáta Pál (Budapest Sun) László Bárdossy was Hungary’s Prime Minister for barely a year in 1941, but during this period his Government proclaimed war on three world powers: the Soviet Union, the USA and Great Britain. In a trial in 1945 he was condemned to death and then executed on January 10, 1946. A new "documentary novel" by historian Pál Pritz, written in a style unusual for an academic, pres­ents the "two faces" of this controversial figure. "Hungarian society is divided in relation to Bárdossy," said Pritz, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. "Those who suffered human loss in 1944 due to the Holocaust regard him as the darkest figure of the Second World War. "But on the other hand, Bárdossy is seen by many as a kind, in­telligent and cultured man, who was not conceited. They see a na­tional hero in him, even at the dramatic moment when he listened to his death sentence and accepted his fate. He might have committed a serious mistake, but he is not a scoundrel," said Pritz. István Csurka, head of Miép (the far-right Hungarian Justice and Life party), initiated the rehabilitation of Bárdossy earlier this year, claiming he was the victim of trumped-up cliarges. Miép filed an application to the Prosecutor General’s Office, seeking a review and retrial of Bárdossy. Many opposing (organizations, however, reacted in anger at the moves. The Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center drew attention to war crimes committed by Bárdossy and decried efforts to minimize his role in exterminating Hungarian Jewry'. Pritz pointed out the cover of his book showed two faces of Bárdossy - on the left a proud man at the height of his power and on the right at the trial when his sentence was being announced. The four main crimes with which tire People’s Tribunal charged him were: Aggression against Yugoslavia, tire declaration of war on the Soviet Union in 1941, entry into war against the USA in 1941 and the massacre in Novi Sad in 1942 in which 18,000 Jews were killed (though he was later acquitted of this). A law banning marriage between Jews and Christians was passed under Bárdossy, however he was never charged in relation to this. "In my opinion, entering into a war with the Soviet Union was a hurried decision, causing a fall which could not be stopped - once you are on a slippery slope you cannot go back. "But I do not share the opinion of those who condemn him for entering into a war with Yugoslavia. In my view, if I take my friend’s purse out of a pickpocket’s pocket I am doing the right tiling. Hungary’s southern area was taken away in 1918 and Hun­gary just wanted to get it back," said Pritz. Pritz said Admiral Miklós Horthy held the main responsibility for this period, not Bár­dossy, though he was not held accountable. "Bárdossy knew during his trail that he would die, but he was just fighting for his rights. He was arguing in the shadow of death, but did not point the finger at Horthy. "Admiral Horthy was a popular man, one of the three most popular men of modem Hungarian history, in addition to Franz Jo­seph and János Kádár. All of them began their work by spilling blood; Franz Joseph with the Arad executions and Horthy with the ‘white terror’ in 1919 and tire beating of Jews, which had been for­gotten by the 1930s," continued Pritz. "Horthy was popular due to his propaganda machine, but nev­ertheless, by the end of the war people had had enough of him, as we can read in Sándor Márai’s novel Diary. Russia, on the other hand, was pleased with Horthy’s attempt to break out of the war on October 4, 1944. "It was not fair calling Bárdossy to account for Horthy’s mis­takes," said Pritz. The Bárdossy trial was the first in the People’s Tribunal series after the war. Bárdossy was bom in Szombathely in 1890, into a family of public officials. His father Jenő was a government adviser. He re­ceived a law degree in Budapest and also studied in Berlin and Paris. In 1913 he entered the realm of public service, first as a sup­porting draftsman, then as a ministerial secretary at the Ministry of Religion and Education. He entered the Foreign Ministry’s press department and became its chief in five years. In 1930 he was ap­pointed counselor of the Hungarian Embassy in London and then became the country’s Ambassador in Bucharest. He became Foreign Minister in February 1941, following the suicide of Pál Teleki. In April, Horthy appointed him Hungary’s Prime Minister and he also continued to lead tire foreign ministry. "The top places for a diplomat in those days were Berlin, Rome, Paris, London and Washington," said Pritz. "Bárdossy was an ex­cellent diplomat, he had a good sense for it, but he did not have his own foreign policy i^eas, he was following what Pál Teleki started. "Bárdossy was a disciplined public official as a Prime Minister, maybe a little bit too rigid. He spoke French, English and German fluently, had a brilliant mind and a wide literary intelligence" Seattle Professor Honored by Hungarian Academy Dr. John F. Szablya, professor was elected Outside Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAC) at its May 7, 2001 General Meeting. The HACr founded in 1825, is one of the oldest, most prestigious and exclusive scientific organiza­tions. Presently, it has 139 outside members . Outside members are regular members who distinguished themselves eminently in one or more branches of sciences, consider themselves to be Hungarians but live and work outside of Hungary. Professor Szablya received this recognition for his work in the areas of electro-mechanical energy conversion processes and basic electromagnetic phenomena. ***★*★*★ ★★★★*★*★★*★ IARF to Hold International Congress in Budapest Next Summer (MTI) - The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) will be holding its next international Congress in Budapest in July and August of 2002, said Hungarian Unitarian pastor Ilona Szent-Ivanyi, IARF's European coordinator, in a statement to the daily Nepszabadsag. IARF was founded in 1900 in Boston by American Unitarians and is the world's oldest international inter­faith organisation. At a meeting in Bad Boll, Germany in late July, IARF studied the situation of freedom of religion in various countries that have applied for European Union membership, including the Czech Re­public, Poland, and Hungary. They concluded that there is no seri­ous threat to freedom of religion in Hungary, but there are issues that give cause for concern. IARF analysts say that in several coun­tries including Hungary, there is no proper dialogue between tradi­tional religious groups with a significant number of followers and the small denominations, Szent-Ivanyi told Nepszabadsag. News Conference Follows Hungarian- Ukrainian PM Meeting (MTI) - Hungary's Prime Minister welcomed Ukraine's accep­tance of the status law, concerning the rights of ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries when in Hungary, at a news conference following his meeting in Budapest with Ukrainian Prime Minister Analoliy Kinakh on Thursday. Kinakh is in Budapest for a one-day official visit, in response to an invitation from the Hungarian PM. At the news conference Orbán expressed his thanks to Ukraine for allowing Hungary to discuss the Hungarian position on the law regarding ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries repeatedly, in detail, and at a prime ministerial level. Orbán said he was satis­fied with having been able to evolve a "very rational dialogue" with Ukraine, and with the way it will be possible to implement the law in the most effective way, while responding to Ukrainian consid­erations. Orbán said that coordination of the law was underway, and that he was convinced of being able to find a way of implementing the law that would be most beneficial to all concerned. He said he be­lieved there would be no obstacle to applying the law to the benefit of the ethnic Hungarian minority of Subcarpathia, which would, he said, be to the benefit to Ukraine and all ethnic Hungarians every­where. As part of his programme, Kinakh will meet Hungarian Presi­dent Ferenc Madl in Tihany, a resort town on Lake Balaton. Angoltanulás gyorsan, könnyen LANGUAGE TEACHER® EHu5()00T ANGOL <—> MAGYAR BESZÉLŐ SZÓTÁR 64K Naptár cs manager rendszer Angol fejlett szókiejtő rendszer 475.000 szó és kifejezés * TOEFL lista * Kel nyelvű Vector UltimaTM helyesírás ellenőrző * 400 hasznos kifejezés Játék * Árfolyam és mértékegység átváltás * Világóra Óra * Ébresztőóra * Számológép stb. $249.95 + adó Az árban a szállítási és kezelési díj is hennlbglallatik Csekket, pénzes utalványt és VISA, MC, AMEX-t is elfogadunk Kálnoky Inc. P.O.Box 6673, Lí. Brunswick, NJ 08816 732-254-2904 * Fax: 732-254-3529 L • ■ 1 AMERIKAI 2001. augusztus 10. IHagyar Hírlap 0

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