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Honorees
An important part of the Reménység Bál
is
honoring important Hungarians who
have enriched generations of Hungarian-Americans
with their steadfast, hard work. The Reménység
Bál celebrates the selfless efforts of these
individuals and their accomplishments .
Gábor Bodnár
One of the most influential Hungarians of the
day, Gábor Bodnár participated actively in the
American Hungarian Association / Amerikai Magyar
Szövetség, the Hungarian Students’ Service, the
Coordinated Hungarian Relief, and the Kossuth
Foundation. He will be best remembered, of
course, for his instrumental work in creating
the Hungarian Scouts Abroad movement /
Külföldi
Magyar Cserkészszövetség.
August J. Molnár
Since 1955, Professor Molnár has served as the
Executive Officer and President of the
American
Hungarian Foundation. Under his leadership, the
foundation has implemented and funded programs
and fellowships in Hungarian studies at
colleges and universities throughout the United
States. In addition, Professor Molnár is a
noted writer and editor of books and studies
chronicling the Hungarian and Hungarian-American
experience.
Tibor Cseh
Tibor Cseh dedicated much of his life to the
preservation of Hungarian language and heritage
in the Western Diaspora. He was a founding
member of the Free Hungarian University of Sao
Paolo, of the first Hungarian Scout troop in the
western hemisphere, and of the
Magyar Baráti
Közösség. He was also dedicated to the
production of Hungarian language periodicals
including the Hungarian Scout Magazine,
Transylvania, and Itt Ott.
Judith and
Kálmán Magyar
Judith and Kálmán’s interest in Hungarian dance
and music ultimately led them to found the
American Hungarian Folklore Centrum, an
organization dedicated to the preservation and
exploration of Hungarian culture. Through
various folklore programs, such as Táncház,
tours for Hungarian folk musicians, and the
Karikázó newsletter, the Magyars are able to
share their culture with Hungarians as well as
with a larger audience. The Magyars also played
an important part in the establishment of the
American Hungarian Museum.
Gyula Borbándi
Eminent scholar and author, Gyula Borbándi has
written extensively about Hungarian history,
literary theory, and political issues. His
works have appeared throughout the United States
and Europe as well as in every significant
journal and periodical dedicated to immigrant
and minority issues.
László Hámos
As president and co-founder of the
Hungarian
Human Rights Foundation, László Hámos has spent
most of life fighting for the essential rights
of Hungarians living as minorities throughout
Eastern and Central Europe. In addition to
writing and editing treatises about human rights
issues, Mr. Hámos has testified before Congress,
lectured at many universities, and served as a
consultant to the news media and to
international human rights organizations.
Anikó
& Donald
Szánthó Harrington
Rev. Dr. Donald Szánthó Harrington was a
Unitarian Universalist minister for sixty-three
years. For more than fifty years, he dedicated himself to the Community Church of New
York City, from where his Sunday services were
broadcast on WQXR, the New York Times station.
He was the author of four books: Religion in the
Age of Science; Jesus as We Remember Him,
Outstretched Wings of the Spirit, and Modern
Humanity in Search of a Myth.
He served as President of the United World
Federalists as the Foundation Chairman of the
American Committee on Africa, as Chairman of the
Liberal Party of New York State, and as Chairman of the Council on
International and Public Affairs on UN Plaza.
Born in Transylvania, Rev. Aniko Szanthó
Harrington devoted herself to teaching in
village schools and at the Miko Collegium in
Sepsi Szent-Gheorge before coming to the United
States. She has earned a Master’s Degree in
Education and Divinity and has completed course
work toward a PhD at the New School for Social
Research in New York City. She has spent the
last six years as a village minister in Romania.
Rev. Aniko considers herself a disciple of
Mahatma Ghandi; her work has inspired the
founding of an Ashram Community, A Center for
Research Experiment and Education in Village
Development, which will be located in the
village of Málnás Fürdö in Transylvania. This
project will study, develop, and improve
villages and village life, without compromising
their cultural integrity. In addition, the
project will work toward maintaining the local
populations, especially the numbers of young
people, who often leaven behind their ancestral
homes.
Rev. Aniko
Szanthó Harrington is also a principal officer of
the Transylvanian Economic Development
Foundation, a non-profit, tax-exempt foundation
based in Washington DC.
Edith Lauer
Edith Lauer had the good fortune to be born into
and raised by a close-knit and quietly patriotic
Hungarian family. At age 14, she experienced
the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, a life-defining
experience. After her family’s escape to the
West, they settled in Maryland, where Edith
finished high school, began her university
studies, and in 1963, married John Lauer. His
first job took them to Texas, where they had two
wonderful daughters, Kriszta and Andrea. A
dozen other moves followed; John embarked on an
exciting business career and Edith finished her
studies with an MA in English/Spanish, and
became involved in volunteer work.
Starting in the 1970’s, they visited Hungary,
and in the early 80’s, their travels took them
to Erdély. Motivated not only by the deplorable
situation of the Hungarians of Erdély but also
by their deeply ingrained Hungarian identity,
the Lauer family began to support the work of
the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF) in
promoting the human and minority rights of
Hungarians in Romania.
In 1989, Edith and John co-chaired a successful
fundraising event to benefit HHRF. Soon after,
almost miraculously, communism dissolved, and
the first democratically elected Hungarian
government came to power. Edith joined a group
of Hungarian Americans who felt it necessary to
establish a Washington-based organization to
promote Hungarian American relations and
interests. The Hungarian American Coalition was
born. For the past eleven years, Edith first
served as its Present, and eventually as its
Chairman.
Although her focus has been the coordination of
the Coalition’s many activities, Edith serves on
the board of several American, Hungarian
American and even a Hungarian-Slovak
organization. She deeply values her
longstanding involvement with Hungarian
Communion of Friends. She intends to continue
her life-long commitment to promote Hungarian
issues and to support Hungarian culture and
education in the Carpathian basin.
Zsolt Szekeres
Zsolt Szekeres was born on January 24, 1946 in
Münsingen, West Germany. Two years later, his
family immigrated to Buenos Aires. As a boy,
Zsolt was active in the Argentine Hungarian
community, attending the grammar school founded
by émigré Hungarian nuns, and was active in the
scouts and the Zrinyi Kör. At age 18, he left
Argentina and subsequently lived and worked in
Germany, Spain, and Mexico.
After moving to Washington, DC, he attended
George Washington University and alter pursued a
20-year career with the United Nations. During
these years, he made several visits to Hungary
and Transylvania, and was active in Hungarian
human rights causes in Washington DC.
Zsolt is Vice President and Treasurer of the
Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF); since
HHRF’s earliest days, Zsolt has helped organize
and carry out its Washington Lobbying and
fundraising activities. In 1991, Zsolt left
the UN to join to IID, Inc, in its first
Hungarian job as management consultant to the
office of Prime Minister Antall. Since then, he
has split his time between Budapest and
Washington, DC. He is Treasurer and Executive
Committee Member of the Hungarian American
Coalition (HAC).
He is particularly active in HAC projects to
support Hungarian minority communities, and to
improve cooperation between Western Hungarians
and the Hungarian government. He is
married to Katica Avvakumovits and is the father
of two sons, Péter and János.
György Dózsa
Born in 1935 in Nagydobos, Hungary (in Szatmár
County), György Dózsa was educated at the
College of Agriculture in Gödöllö, Hungary, and
completed his studies at the College of
Agriculture in Vienna, prior to moving to the
United States in 1959, where he completed his
education at Rutgers University. He remained at
Rutgers, in a rewarding career in the
Environmental Science Department, for nearly
thirty years.
After becoming a naturalized citizen of the
United States in 1964, Dozsa became very
involved in civic and cultural activities in New
Jersey and in Washington, DC. He has served as
the Chief Elder of the Magyar Reformed Church in
New Brunswick, President of the American
Hungarian Democratic Club, Vice president of the
Middlesex County American Hungarian Democratic
Organization, Commissioner of the Housing and
Urban Development authority of New Brunswick,
Member of the Planning Board of the City of New
Brunswick, and member of the Development Council
of the American Hungarian Foundation.
He may be best known, however, for his work with
the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, of
which he was Vice-President/Secretary from
1988-1992, and President from 1992-2001. Today,
he serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors,
a position he has held since 1992. He also
serves on the Board of Directors of the
American
Hungarian Foundation, and is a member of the
Cultural Association of the City of New
Brunswick.
Dózsa is married to Matilda Beteri, and has two
children, George and Cynthia.
Rev.
Stephen N. Mustos, Sch.P.
Rev. Stephen Mustos was born on August 10, 1931
in Veszprém, one of the most historic cities of
Hungary. He studied under the Priarist Fathers
and joined their order in 1949. Fr. Mustos left
Hungary in November 1956 when he continued his
academic life in Rome where he earned a degree
in theology at Gregorian University. He made
his vows to the order in 1957 and was ordained
on April 20, 1958 in Rome.
Fr. Mustos came to the United States in 1959 and
joined those Priarist Fathers whose goal it was
to establish a province in this country. He
earned a degree to become a teacher of
mathematics and physics at Canisius College in
Buffalo, New York. He taught in the Priarist
school in Buffalo, before moving to Devon,
Pennsylvania, where he was headmaster from 1969
to 1987. During his tenure as headmaster, the
reputation of Devon Preparatory School
flourished, as it enjoyed academic and financial
prosperity.
During this time, Fr. Mustos was elected four
times as Assistant Provincial and represented
the school to the College Board. In 1985, he
became the President of the Association of
Hungarian Priests on the East Coast of the
United States. From 1987 to 1990, Fr. Mustos
served as the chaplain of St. Stephen’s Church
in Trenton until he became the pastor of St.
Stephen’s RC Magyar Church in October of 1990.
He and his parish family celebrated the 100th
anniversary of the founding of their parish in
April 2003.
Fr. Mustos is the American delegate to Bishop
Attila Miklósházy, the bishop of all Hungarian
Roman Catholics living outside of Hungary. He
is the chaplain of North American region of the
Hungarian Knights of Malta. Fr. Mustos is
dedicated to uniting his parishioners and
members of local, national, and international
Hungarian organizations.
He also works on strengthening the ecumenical
movement locally and abroad. He is a staunch
supporter of Hungarian scouting, Hungarian
schools, the Hungarian-American Museum of
Passaic, and of every Hungarian organization.
As the delegate of Bishop Miklósházy, Fr. Mustos
personally attends to the needs of those
Hungarians who live in the United States and do
not have a Hungarian pastor. It is greatly due
to his tireless effort that many
Hungarian-Americans can worship in Hungarian to
this day. He is a leader within the Hungarian
community and brings honor to his parish, his
friends and associates, and brings
Hungarian-Americans closer to both one another
and the Lord through his work.
Dr.
Péter Forgách
Dr. Péter Forgách was born in 1946 in Gyongyos,
Hungary. He escaped from Hungary with his
parents during the 1956 Revolution, going to
Austria, Italy, Canada, and finally in 1959 to
the United States. He attended the Calasanctius
Prep School in Buffalo, New York , founded by
the Hungarian Piarist Fathers. Upon graduating
from high school, he decided to enter into the
profession of medicine, doing his undergraduate
work at the University of Notre Dame and
attending medical school at the Medical
College of Georgia. His post-graduate years
were spent at the Cleveland Clinic, the
University of Buffalo, and the Baylor School of
Medicine, where he received his fellowship
training in vitreous and retina surgery. He
served as Chief of the Retina Surgery service at
the Oakland Naval Hospital for three years. In
1980 he moved back to Buffalo and opened his
private practice.
His ties to the Hungarian community were
established through the Hungarian Churches he
belonged to, the Hungarian Scout movement, and
the Piarist schools. Over the past ten years he
became very active in Hungarian affairs,
establishing the Calasanctius Training Program,
through which over 140 students have received
scholarships to study in the United States. He
also acts as a sponsor for the Orsvezetoi Korut
of the Hungarian Scout Association.
Over the past five years he has also set up an
entrepreneurship course of studies for young
high school students in Hungary. His dream is
to establish an American-style Peace Corp in
Hungary, whereby upon graduation young Hungarian
university graduates would spent one to two
years of their lives teaching and doing
community work with Hungarians living in the
adjacent countries outside of Hungary.
Gabriella Ormay
Nádas
Gabriella Ormay Nádas was born in Canada and
grew up in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, a town
with few Hungarians. The influence of her
parents, grandparents and later her involvement
with Hungarian scouting made her proud of her
Hungarian identity and heritage. Gabriella
recalls how, in 1957, her grandmother dressed in
black as a symbol of mourning for her nephew,
Kálmán Csiha, who was sentenced to ten years
imprisonment.
The changing political landscape of the 1990’s
enabled Gabriella’s mother to invite Dr. Csiha,
the newly elected Bishop of the Reformed Church
of Erdely (Erdélyi Református Püspök), to tour
North America. This is when Gabriella started
her fundraising work for the Reformed Church
Collegium of Kolozsvár (Kolozsvári Református
Kollégium), an effort that she is still
passionately committed to.
Nearly two hundred students per year receive
financial assistance for tuition and boarding.
Funds raised have benefited other projects:
built a dormitory wing for the Deaconess Center
of Kolozsvár (Kolozsvári Diakonissza központ),
helped with the renovations of the 200 year old
Kolozsvári Kollégium, partially funded the
construction of the Deaconess Center of
Marosvásárhely (Marosvásárhelyi Diakonissza
központ) and aided with various building
constructions in Nagyenyed and Székelyudvarhely.
In addition to her fundraising work for the
Calvin Synod School, Gabriella continues to be
involved in Hungarian scouting, having been a
scout leader in Toronto and a troop leader in
Cleveland. During her years as a university
student in Toronto, she was an active member of
the Helicon Society (Helicon Társaság) and
presently is involved with the Hungarian
Association (Magyar Társaság) in Cleveland.
Gabriella and her husband, Dr. János Nádas, have
three sons, János, Miklós and István and reside
in Canton, Ohio.
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