The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)

1985-10-01 / 10. szám

Hungarian íEigbtb Űribe Sbnmöatimt

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: P.O. Box 637, Ligonier, PA 15658

WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN / Sons and Daughters / OF ARP AD?

Many thousands of years ago, the Prophet Isaiah addressed the City of Arpad: “Where are your gods, Arpad, to protect you?” Today, we can apply some of these words to the Hungarian Americans. “Where are you, sons and daughters of Arpad?” The following is the first paragraph from the first issue (April, 1974):

The most Important aim of the “Eighth Tribe” is to preserve and transmit that particular Hungarian heritage with which God has so richly blessed us Hungarians. This immense richness is our national property and it is our obligation to hand it over to our youth, regardless of the part of the world in which the happen to live. They have a God-bestowed right to this heritage. This is the cement which holds us together and which makes us conscious of the values of our origin, thus securing for us a place in this human world.

With these words the Eighth Hungarian Tribe magazine started on her quest to gather her divided family into a united body again. Now, in her twelfth year, she still almost stands alone. From the 1.8 million of Hungarian Americans, only about one thousand heard her calling and became her family.

The Hungarian American Community, as of now, consists of four different segments: the “real emigráció’’/the immigrants, who came to the new country before the Second World War, mostly at the end of the 19th century, or the two first decades of the twentieth, (most of them now are departed into the other life); their children/grandchildren; those who came after the Second World War, many of them former soldiers of the Hungarian Army, or other prisioners of war of Germany. The fourth segment are those who took the opportunity to leave Hungary during the 1956 Revolution. The last two groups consisted mostly of the educated ‘intellegenda’, while the first ‘emigráció’ was from the working people, who became farmers, factory workers, or miners; and in the center are the second/ third generation, who were born in America, the children of the ‘Emigráció’, who made sure that their children received the education they did not have. These children/grandchildren became doctors, engineers, lawyers, politicians, etc.

Seeing the situation eroding between the old and the new arrivals, the second/third generation made an effort to build a bridge between them. The Eighth Hungarian Tribe magazine entered into the picture in 1974. A few years later in 1978, came the Hungarian Eighth Tribe Foundation, (officially organized on August 22, 1981) when people from the old, second/third generation, and

October, 1985

from those, who came after the Second World War, gathered in Ligonier, Pennsylvania to lay down the foundation for the ‘Bridge’. Unfortunately, only the first pillars and the beginning of the frame were erected, and there it still stands, waiting to be finished.

One can visit Hungarian churches, national or local conferences or picnics, only to find a few who have heard about either the paper, or the Foundation. A few months ago over two hundred copies were left at one of the largest Hungarian churches and not one inquiry was made. It makes you wonder, what happened to the magazine, or the people. Although belonging to a Hungarian church, they apparently have no interest beyond their own immediate circle, or have no wish to learn more about their heritage or their people.

In the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, the Hungarian radio programs are urging their listeners to subscribe to the magazine. The same can be said of the Ohio radio programs, but we receive very few inquiries. The Chicago & Vicinity, Hungarian weekly publication, for many years has faithfully sponsored an ad in their publication, but we’ve had only a few responses.

There are a few of the newer Americans, who realized that their children were rapidly loosing their Hungarian identity in the americanism evolution, (while many other nationalities are keeping it even after many generations), who now are taking an active part in the Bethlen Press and in the Eighth Hungarian Tribe magazine — also in the Hungarian Eighth Tribe Foundation.

The HETF has played a leading role in organizing “The United Hungarian American Committee for the

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