Starting with the upcoming weekend the Sunday services of Calvin Hungarian Congregation of Ottawa will be live broadcast, at 13:00. For further information please visit http://calvinhungarian.org

Legislative elections are held in Romania on the 6th of December 2020.
4 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 2 members of the Senate are elected from constituencies representing Romanians living abroad.
The political elite is stirring up and takes advantage of the animosity of the majority of Romanians toward the ethnic minorities. In this situation, it is crucial for the Hungarians who live in Romania to have a strong parliamentary representation that can protect effectively the Hungarian minority rights.

In his letter (in Hungarian only) addressed to OHCC, Dr. Hunor Kelemen, the president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR), requested the help and support of the Hungarian Diaspora. To register their List of Candidates for the elections in the constituencies for Romanians living overseas, they need to collect a minimum of 4000 signatures in Diaspora by October the 6th.

The time is pressing, therefore, we would like to urge every member of our community who has Romanian citizenship to rally behind the motion of Mr. Hunor Kelemen by signing the online version of the document at the address below:

https://irjala.rmdsz.ro/

The COVID pandemic and the foreseeable future force us to adapt and make use of modern communication tools to remain in touch. With this in mind, we are organizing a mixed virtual and physical community gathering on Saturday, October the 4^th at 2 PM. During this meeting we will not make any decisions pertaining to the business of the OHCC. The sole purpose of this meeting is to attempt to simultaneously connect within a single communication channel. Later on, we wish to organize real membership meetings, which are the bare minimum required by law to sustain the existence of any organization, and also the primary means to take major decisions regarding its everyday business. We will project the virtual meeting on the large screen at the hall while broadcasting the local scene to the virtual participants.

There are a few ways to make up to 100 simultaneous connections over the Internet free of charge. The service provided by Google is the most promising and least constraining, which is why we will use Google Meet first. Unfortunately, Google Meet requires the use of a valid GMail address of each participant. Luckily setting one up is also free of charge at Google, but it still might constitute a nuisance for some people. We kindly ask everyone who does not have a GMail account to create one and let us know what its e-mail address is; we can provide technical help in this process too if needed.

To aid participation in our virtual meeting, we will do our best to serve with detailed, step-by-step instructions. Every Thursday between 6 and 7 PM we will offer technical consultation to help acquire the necessary skills. The consultations will take place at the House, and the covered material will be posted on the OHCC website as well. The posted guide can be studied and put to test individually, and any questions or requests about the subject matter can be brought or forwarded to us.

On October the 4^th, we reserve the physical presence for those who do not have an electronic means or personal trust to participate in the meeting. We ask these individuals to notify us in time by any means available to them.

This gathering will only succeed with Your and everyone’s patient collaboration, so please, do your best to take part in some form.

Great news!

We are excited to announce that Kati Bognár and Sue Klekner-Alt have committed their culinary talents to prepare and serve Heritage Hungarian meals for takeout on every second Friday, starting on this upcoming Friday, September 4th.
To find out more please click on this webpage. We accept reservations: online, by email, or by phone (613-225-8754).

The Széchenyi István University (Győr) and the University of Rhode Island (Kingston, RI, USA) offer an online double-degree MBA program, which allows students to register at both universities simultaneously and to complete a full program of study at each institution.
The University of Rhode Island is accredited by AACSB International – the longest-serving global accrediting body for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in business and accounting. AACSB Accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education and has been earned by less than five per cent of the world’s business programs.
This double-degree MBA program prepares leaders to rise to expectations within an environment that fosters knowledge acquisition, retention, and practical learning.
Upon successful completion of the program the following degrees will be conferred:
Executive MBA degree (MBA) at Széchenyi István University
Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Rhode Island
The language of instruction is exclusively English.
The tuition fee for this 4-term program is US$30.000 (€6.800 per term). Candidates who are citizens of Hungary or are of Hungarian descent, can earn a sponsorship from the Pallas Anthéné Domus Meriti Foundation of the National Bank of Hungary.

Application Deadline: August 11, 2020

Information about admission and contact information of the program-coordinator (Dr. Emese Bukor) can be found on the homepage of the Institution:
https://admissions.sze.hu/executive-mba-english-

In April 2019 the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF) suffered a terrible loss with the passing of László Hámos, co-founder and President of the New York-based non-profit organization.
László Hámos was known for being a protector of Hungarian minority rights and a reputable, influential member of the Hungarian diaspora in America. Under his leadership, the Foundation developed into a trusted clearinghouse of well-researched, reliable information. As a result, over the years it built up a network of bipartisan U.S. allies in Congress and the State Department willing to use their offices to speak up on behalf of Hungarian minorities, themselves “voiceless” behind the Iron Curtain. Hámos and his colleagues also wrote and edited several volumes, position papers and scholarly articles on human rights in addition to presenting more than 1,000 pages of written testimony at 27 hearings before various Congressional committees.
Following the downfall of Communism, HHRF has mobilized Western support for the positive initiatives and aspirations of Hungarian minority communities to rebuild civil society, to promote economic self-reliance and to restore their centuries-old traditions of educational and cultural excellence.
He developed new initiatives to promote cultural identity among the 1.5 million Americans of Hungarian ancestry, notably the 2012 launch of ReConnect Hungary Birthright Program under the patronage of former New York State Governor George E. Pataki.
László Hámos also won respect throughout the world-wide Hungarian diaspora. He represented Hungarians in the West at meetings of the Hungarian Standing Conference (MÁÉRT) and the Carpathian Basin Hungarian Parliamentarians’ Forum (KMKF) in Budapest.
With his activities over the course of nearly four decades, László Hámos has provided a tremendous service to the Hungarian nation as a whole, and particularly to the Hungarian minorities in the Carpathian Basin. Awards recognizing his and HHRF’s achievements include: the “For Minorities Award” in 1996; the “Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary” in 2001; the American Hungarian Foundation’s Abraham Lincoln Award in 2007; and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Arany János Medal, bestowed in 2011.

Just in from HHRF:

“The long-awaited documentary film entitled Mégis [And Yet], about the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation and co-founder László Hámos, is now available for viewing with English subtitles.
Acclaimed director János Domokos documented the heartfelt goodbyes of the Hungarian communities in New York and Budapest. Participants in HHRF’s early initiatives evoke the era in colourful interviews. Never before published pictures and video recordings make this documentary a must-see for all people interested in the plight of the 2.5 million ethnic Hungarians living as minority communities in the six countries surrounding Hungary.”

As you may have learnt from our earlier news, at the end of March we proceeded with the replacement of the sub-floor and floor of the hall, cloak-room and the bar area of the House. In the 2019 Fall Member’s Meeting of the OHCC we presented our long-standing plan to renovate the House, scheduled for the summer of 2020. The opportunity for the early implementation of this plan has arrived, when the coronavirus pandemic forced our hand to temporarily cease all scheduled social activities and close the doors of the House for the duration of the pandemic.
If interested in the progress of the renovation, we posted new videorecordings on our website that you are kindly invited to visit.

The thirteenth and final episode of the documentary “Trailing Radnóti” is available to your viewing pleasure.

It was in Bor, in the copper mines of Serbia, that the 19 years old Ferenc Andai met with the poet Miklós Radnóti, both prisoners, among four hundred others, of the Heidenau forced labour camp. In the fall of 1944, their destiny led them onto different paths. Under the increasing pressure from the partisans, the contingent of labourers from all camps in the area was divided in two transports. The first, in which Radnóti was selected, headed towards Hungary on foot, in a gruelling forced march. Decimated along the way, most of them perished by the time they reached their constantly changing destination. The second column of prisoners left two days later, forced marched on an eastern route. They were liberated by Tito’s partisans. Ferenc Andai was among the few survivors of Lager Heidenau. He came to Canada in 1957. After his retirement in 1994, he settled in Ottawa and, on rare occasions, visited the OHCC.

His recollection of that fateful time appeared in 2003, published by the editorial house Ab Ovo in Budapest. His book Mint tanu szólni: bori történet (To Bear Witness: A Story of Bor) was awarded the Radnóti Miklós National Prize in 2004.
It is hot news that the memoir is available for purchase on Amazon in English, under the title In The Hour Of Fate And Danger. The translation is the commendable work of Marietta Morry and Lynda Muir.
Marietta, a long-standing member of the former Ottawa Hungarian Choir, is known for her comedic talents during the Choir’s Carnival Balls, as well.

Taking advantage of the House being locked down, due to public health measures aiming to reduce the rate of infection of COVID-19, we, the BoD, saw an opportunity to implement our long-standing plans for the inside renovation of the House. Solely under our own steam, although often assisted by family members – respecting all along the provincial directives re: social distancing –, we refurbished the floor and the furniture in the Office on the second floor. Next to it, we gave the little washroom a complete makeover.
And lately, we work hard to replace entirely the sub-floor and the floor of the Hall, cloak-room and bar on the first level.
We report on the progress of the work with photos and videos posted on our website that you are kindly invited to visit here.
Please, revisit this page from time to time, if interested in the progress of the project.

A well-known performer of Hungarian classical poetry, Péter Lóránt Tóth, to many a familiar name by now, had visited Ottawa three times in recent years, as messenger of Attila József, Sándor Petőfi, and King Saint László (Ladislaus).

In the fall of 2019, he retraced the final journey of poet Miklós Radnóti from the forced labourcamp of Bor (Eastern Serbia) to the end of the road at Abda (Hungary).

A crew of the Pannon TV from Szabadka (Subotice, Serbia) made a multi-part recording of the 850 kilometer long journey, stretching through three different countries. Now we have the opportunity to follow the performer on this endeavour by streaming from the homepage of Pannon RTV and the YouTube links that follow:

Trailer 1
Trailer 2
Episode 1.
Episode 2.
Episode 3.
Episode 4.
Episode 5.
Episode 6.
Episode 7.
Episode 8.
Episode 9.
Episode 10.
Episode 11.
Episode 12.
Episode 13.