Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1999 (16. évfolyam, 55-57. szám)
1999 / 55-57. szám
alliance with Germany, increased tensions within various Hungarian communities and associations. “Hungary has become an ally of fascist Germany not from free will but under pressure" - stressed the majority of the Hungarian bourgeois-liberals. However, the communists, criticized and slandered them, and called them the "fifth column” of Hitler and agents of feudal Hungary. Fortunately, this was not identical with the opinion of the U.S. State Department. Sons of many Hungarians served in the American army and they were particularly sensitive to the stigma of "coming from a fascist country". This did not provide encouragement for the open declaration of their Hungarian identity and the maintenance of contacts with Hungarian organizations. The second wave of modernization in the 1960’s After 1945 two great waves of Hungarian immigrants arrived in the United States between 1948-60: the so-called “DP Hungarians" (Displaced Persons), and from the end of 1956 the so-called "Freedom Fighters". These newcomers could have been recruited by the fraternal organizations. However, few of these new immigrants ever became members. The immigrants following the Second World War came from a different social stratum than those of former decades. They brought with them different experiences and culture from Hungary and found themselves in an "alien" Hungarian American environment. The different groups of immigrants were quite estranged from each other. Older Hungarian Americans did not easily tolerate the criticism of newcomers and guarded their associations against them. On the other hand, the new immigrants found the life insurance activities of the older immigrants "outdated and petty" and rejected the social and cultural life conducted in these associations. According to the system of values of the newcomers such activities were "neither Hungarian nor cultural." At the beginning of 1952, the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association managed to reach agreement with another important Hungarian "national” association, the Rákóczi Association and to negotiate their merger. The leaders of both associations were motivated by the desire to conquer the wider American market and found the names of their associations (Verhovay and Rákóczi) to be a liability in their business activities. They were looking for a name that would provide an American image. This is how, at the 1955 Convention of the associations, the new organization from their merger came to be named the "William Penn Fraternal Association". The name-giver was an English Quaker, the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the state where the Verhovay got its start. The new leaders of the William Penn Fraternal Association worked out a new modernization program by 1963. This aimed at borrowing as much as possible from the methods of commercial insurance companies, including not only types of insurance but also administrative methods. They wanted to extend the range of their clientele in contrast to former practices, when insurance polices were sold primarily to Hungarians and their relations. Professional insurance agents were employed, targeting the wider American market and the Hungarian organizers, so-called "field men", became redundant. Insurance premiums were no longer collected personally by the officials of individual chapters. Non-viable chapters were liquidated or merged in the name of economy and rationality. The amount of financial support was reduced for fraternal ethnic social activities. The center retained control over only a few social events, e.g. the organization of Christmas celebrations William Penn Association (Continued) TO EDITORS, DIRECTORS, CHAIRPERSONS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS: Please consider this new beginning of the Hungarian Studies Newsletter as an additional opportunity to expand your information network. We would like to have you consider the Newsletter as your forum. We invite all fellow Hungarian related newsletters, studies centers, institutes and programs to share information with us and to subscribe to the Newsletter and/or establish an ongoing exchange of our publications. a . 1. for children, bowling competitions, a banquet held at a different place each year, participation at anniversary celebrations held by individual chapters, setting up scholarship foundations, and the financing of annual prizes. All this led to the weakening of personal contacts and the atrophy of social and cultural activities in individual branches. At the 1971 Convention the adjective "fraternal” was removed from the name of the organization and it now became the "William Penn Association". As a result of the changes it began to resemble much more a commercial insurance company than its previous incarnation as a fraternal organization. Its leaders were acquainted with American business and investment and introduced modern actuarial and insurance practices. All this and other innovations not mentioned here, i.e. the widening of the range of insurance policies must have contributed to the business success of the William Penn Association, which by the 1980s had become one of the most significant organizations of its kind in Pennsylvania. Between 1956 and 1982 the Association doubled its assets partly due to attractive investments based on high interest rates and higher yields from new insurance policies (often introduced in replacement of old policies). The number of new members, however, could not make up for the reduction of membership due to death. At the same time the introduction of a centralized payment program undermined the branches, the local communities. Almost all of the manifold tasks of the ethnic institutions established through social self-organization were abandoned by the William Penn Association, and only the insurance enterprise remained. Efforts to revive the ethnic character of the William Penn Association When American society experienced an ethnic renaissance-from the second half of the 1960s, -Hungarian Americans were also looking for their roots and showed increased interest in their Hungarian heritage. Alongside business considerations the decreasing membership gave rise to concern and this ethnic renaissance played a part in the revitalization from the second half of the 1970s onward. The management of the William Penn Association once again started to show an interest in the Hungarian Americans and their fraternal activities. Having sensed an increase of interest in the old homeland among its members, the Association started to organize regular trips to Hungary for groups to visit relatives and to get to know the old homeland better. From this time on, the Association became more active in trying to find ways to combine business interests successfully with social activities representing Hungarian ethnic values in a changing world. At the end of the 1970s, the William Penn Association (Continued on page 6) NO. 55-57, SPRING/SUMMER/AUTUMN 1999, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER 5
