The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1982 (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1982-02-01 / 2. szám
February, 1982 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 3 It can be purchased through the Bethlen Home: P. 0. Box 657, Ligonier Pa. 15658, or through Bethlen Press. Price is $5.00 plus postage. The applications {or membership in the Hungarian Eighth Tribe Foundation have started to come in. Your response will determine the future of this magazine and the Fundation. Letters to the editori— Dear Mr. Chotmos: Please enter 3 Gift subscriptions to the Eighth Tribe, also a regular subscription for the Hungarian Club of Toledo, Ohio and an individual subscription. We are striving to revitalize the Hungarian Club of Toledo. But we need help — Not Money — but sources of material: of Films, of Hungarian Entertainers and Lecturers, which we can use to put together a program of “non-party” events. We cannot maintain any vestiges of our Hungarian Culture, if we are a lonely dwindling outpost. How many otheT Clubs are in this same situation? Do some of them have sources of Films? Or Entertainers or serious Lecturers? How do we find out? Which clubs are they- Who should be contacted? How about a CLUB PAGE in the the Eighth Tribe? Names and addresses of Clubs, names of their officers could be listed. Recent Club News could be carried. Who to contact if you are in another club’s area while traveling — could be the difference between a wonderful and so-so trip. Source of films and how to obtain them would be invaluable. — Whatever happened to all those old and same very wonderful films that were made in Hungary before WW II, which were still circulating in the U.S. in the early 60’s? What about some of the more recent films from Hungary? Planned Tours of Hungarian Performers to the U.S. — or even those just being considered — and who to contact, would be fantastic. Perhaps the Eighth Ttribe could become a semi-formal coordination point or office for an Association of Hungarian Clubs. The Eighth Tribe help is needed in many areas, a need that I suspect is common to many Hungarian Clubs and that no-one is filling! Tisztelettel, Steve Soley Toledo, Ohio YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED TO KEEP THIS MAGAZINE ALIVE! BE AN ADVOCATE IN ITS BEHALF. — Give a Gift Subscription to your Children and Grandchildren — Dr. Endre Nanay: CAN WE FORGET OUR ROOTS? There are many who fled Hungary during and after the 1956 uprising who were not forced by politics or by virtue of their middle-class origins to emigrate; mere adventure seekers who, having entrenched themselves in this new world, now question the need to uphold their Hungarian heritage. Let’s forget our culture, they say. Let’s forget that culture whose roots penetrate our very soul and provide the “raison d’etre” of our existence. An occasional gift of money to the relatives in Hungary satisfies the cravings of conscience. That’s enough. We can say “amen” to our Hungarian past. There are those too among these adventure seekers who feed their conscience and their egos with the outward signs of their worldly wealth in the New World. They make their annual pilgrimmage to the homeland, shipping their luxurious american cars to the continent. They drive proudly through the streets of the Hungarian capitol. Displaying the symbol of their affluence, they arrive at the humble abode of a brother or uncle and distribute a few select pieces of second-hand clothing. The “rich American” lives at the deluxe Intercontinental Hotel in Budapest and despite his broken English, only admits to his “Magyar” origins upon being questioned. And, the more the past fades into hazy memories, the easier it becomes for the “rich American” to reject his “Magyar” past. Ten million Hungarians remain in Hungary in the midst of a Slavic sea of three hundred fifty million. Another two million Hungarians live around the periphery of the country, primarily in Rumania. About one million can be found scattered throughout the Western world. Those who chose to remain in the homeland are forced to endure both Slavic and Soviet domination. Only we Hungarians in the West have the means and the duty to raise our voices on their behalf. It is our group of immigrant Hungarians that Zoltán Kodály characterized as “THE EIGHTH TRIBE”. It would be a betrayal of our origins if, as immigrants and as members of The Eighth Tribe, we were to reject the blood of our ancestors, if we were to shun their language and culture, to neglect bringing up our children in the spirit of our ancestry, and if we were to refuse to help those who remained to endure the hardships behind the Iron Curtain. This publication, which appears in the Hungarian and English language, seeks to nourish the
