Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1999 (16. évfolyam, 55-57. szám)

1999 / 55-57. szám

HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 55-57 ISSN 0194-164X Spring-Summer-Autumn, 1999 Published quarterly by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation: Winter, Spring-Summer (double issue), Autumn. Editor: Andrew Ludanyi, Managing Editor: August J. Molnár; Contributors: lulianna Puskás, George Dózsa. Communications concerning content should be addressed to the Editor: Department of History, Political Science & Criminal Justice, Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH 45810. Communications concern­ing subscriptions, advertising and circulation should be addressed to American Hungarian Foundation, Hungarian Heritage Center, 300 Somerset Street, PO Box 1084, New Brunswick, N) 08903-1084, Tel.: 732-846-5777, Fax: 732-249-7033, E-Mail: info@ahfoundation.com. Annual subscription in the U.S.A. $10.00. Abroad $12.00. Current sin­gle copy $4.00; back issues $5.00 each. EDITOR'S CORNER We live in an age where the long-term interests of society are fre­quently sacrificed on the altar of short-term gain. We have wit­nessed this in the context of our own society wherein gas-guzzling dinosaurs (4x4’s) are still being manufactured at a time when everyone is aware of their negative effect on the environment and on the quality of the air we breath. In much the same way we see thousands of Americans willing to sacrifice other national assets for short-term gain. Of direct relevance to the work of the American Hungarian Foundation is the flippant way in which bilingualism is a constant casualty of nationalistic posturing on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In recent years a number of East- Central European states have passed restrictive language laws that have limited the educational opportunities of Hungarians. On our side of the Atlantic/Pacific divide we have seen similar short­sighted efforts on the part of the US English lobby, to restrict bilin­gualism opportunities within the United States. At the American Hungarian Foundation, we are very much aware of the consequences of such attitudes and pressures. In the administration of the Heritage Center and the handling of our archival collections, it is more and more difficult to find Americans with bilingual English and Hungarian capabilities, not to say Slovak, German, Rusyn, Romanian or one of the South Slavic languages. Yet such language skills are a must if we are to properly catalogue and organize the Center's library and archival collections. In this context we would like to keep our readers informed about study opportunities that exist for Americans in the Hungarian lan­guage. Traveling around Budapest I could not help but smile when I read a sign (advertising language instruction) with the slogan: "Don't Panic, Learn Hungarian.” In this spirit, the HSN will gladly write about language programs that exist either in the USA or Hungary for the desperate "English only” monolinguals. a.l. FOUNDATION NEWS AND NOTES The Board of Directors of the William Penn Association has approved and renewed its grant commitment to the American Hungarian Foundation following the Association’s quadrennial Convention of the the Association in Pittsburgh, PA, in September, 1999. The Association has made a four year grant of $100,000 to the American Hungarian Foundation to support its Museum, Library and Archives programs. The Bethlen Archives, a major archival collection about American Hungarians, their churches and organizations, was deposited with the Foundation in 1998. The trustees of the Bethlen Museum & Archives, Inc. have made a $120,000 four year grant to the Foundation to support the cataloging of the Bethlen Archives collection. Charitable trusts, bequest and endowed gifts. In 1999 the American Hungarian Foundation can report and record two chari­table trusts that were established to benefit the Foundation. The first, the Lajos Schmidt Charitable Trust in the amount of $400,000, will provide an annual sum of $32,000 for the Foundation's programs. A second is the Charitable Trust of Dr. and Mrs. József Bődig. Major bequests received during the past year include the Francis Fay Miller bequest of $123,900; the Julius Sirmay bequest $10,000, and the Estate of Eugene Fodor, which has made a partial bequest payment of $20,000. Gabor Carelli remembered the Foundation with a provision in his will donating his Hungarian books to the Library of the Foundation. Matching corporate gifts to the American Hungarian Foundation have increased annually. More donors are recognizing that their contributions to the Foundation can be matched/doubled or tripled by the firm’s own corporate matching gifts program. Among the numerous firms that have matched their employee’s and retiree’s contributions to the American Hungarian Foundation are the following: Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Unilever, AT&T, Pfizer, Time Warner, Chase Manhattan Bank, Prudential, J. P. Morgan, Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Federated Department Stores, Bellcore, and Merrill Lynch. Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission and the American Hungarian Foundation signed an agreement in 1997 in which the Foundation shall provide the Commission the equivalent of half the amount of the Fulbright Fellowships for scholars that come to the Foundation's Library and Archives. Under this arrangement in 1999 the Foundation has awarded fellowship grants totalling $24,350 to the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission. A $2,500 grant to Kossuth Lajos University in Debrecen, Hungary, was awarded by the American Hungarian Foundation to support the University's library resources in the field of American history. Memorial donations are made often to the American Hungarian Foundation by family and friends in memory of loved ones. Among these gifts some have totaled to represent major contributions to the Foundation. Among these recent funds are the Elizabeth Halasi-Kun Fund and the Paul C. Kovi Fund, 37th annual George Washington Awards dinner of the American Hungarian Foundation was held on Tuesday, November 16, 1999, in New York City at The Waldorf-Astoria. The Laureates of the Award were honored Dr. István Deák, Seth Low Professor of History, Columbia University; Dr. Lajos Schmidt, International Strategic Consultants of Chicago and Budapest, and Retired Partner and Past Chairman, Executive Committee, Baker & McKenzie; and Dr. Imre Somody, President and General Manager, Pharmavit, a-Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Hungary, and Vice President, Mead Johnson Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. Serving as co-chairmen for the Awards dinner were Dr. Zsolt Harsanyi and Michael Hont. Dr. Harsanyi is President of Porton International, Inc., and Chairman of the Board, American Hungarian Foundation. Mr. Hont is Operations Principal of Asiel & Co. and a Director of the American Hungarian Foundation. 2 NO. 55-57, SPR1NG/SUMMER/AUTUMN 1999, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

Next

/
Thumbnails
Contents