Nicholas Keung
Immigration and Diversity Reporter

It's remarkable how tragedy can create a community from people who would otherwise have remained strangers. For Toronto's Hungarians, that was the silver lining in the dark cloud of the 1956 failed revolution in which more than 2,500 civilians died fighting to overthrow Hungary's communist government, and some 200,000 fled their homeland.

The exotic yet lovely liver dumpling soup and sweet Dobos Torte (a vanilla sponge cake slathered with chocolate buttercream and wedges of caramel glaze) on the menu at Saturday's annual Rakoczi Foundation Gala represent just a taste of the extra flavours those onetime refugees have added to Canada over the past 50 years. Set in the Blue Danube Ballroom, an Austrian banquet hall in Scarborough lit with brass chandeliers and draped in white linens, the black-tie fundraising dinner was reminiscent of the grand balls enjoyed in the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

If not for the English program and the huge Maple Leaf flying in the lofty hall, the roomful of 200 elegantly clad guests enjoying live traditional music could have passed for the royalty of those long-gone days. But these men and women, some in bocskay and diszmagyar (traditional court attire) were survivors and descendants of the 40,000 Hungarians who took refuge in Canada during 1956 and 1957 – all bound by a similar history.

The Rakoczi Foundation, born as an association to help those Hungarian-Canadian newcomers establish roots here, has become a pillar of that now well-integrated community. 

Ervin Kulcsar was a 19-year-old tool-and-die maker in Budapest in 1956 when he, like many other working-class folk, joined in a protest led by university students against the Soviet-backed government. "The demonstration started quiet but they called in the secret police and the army started shooting at us, killing many people," the president of the Hungarian Freedom Fighters Federation recalled of the Budapest march that began the revolt – which quickly spread through the country and resulted in a brief overthrow of the communist government. The revolution ended Nov. 10, 1956, six days after the Soviet army invaded and quashed the fledgling democracy movement.

"It's history that brings us all together and it's a history that we can't and shouldn't forget," said Kulcsar, who attended the gala with two other "freedom fighters," Frank Terenyi and Frank Felkai, whom he met after coming to Canada. Kulcsar, whose chest still bears an 8-inch scar from a cut suffered during a cannon attack, arrived in Canada in 1957 and later studied to become an engineer.

The revolution united many Hungarians in Canada and created a close-knit diaspora. California-raised Zsofia Szoke met her husband, Laszlo, a Hamilton dentist, through a Hungarian Scouts and Guides Association jamboree in 1980. "Once Hungarian, you're always Hungarian," chuckled the school career counsellor, whose elder son and daughter are so keen on their heritage they are now studying at the University of Hungary.

Tibor Lukacs, a retired elementary teacher from Simcoe, said the community has come a long way from the days when the first refugees created a Hungarian neighbourhood along Bloor St., between Spadina Ave. and Bathurst St. Today, "we have doctors, professors and all kinds of professionals contributing to the Canadian society," he said. One purpose of the Rakoczi gala was to recognize the achievements of Hungarian Canadians like businessman Tom Mihalik, owner of Tom's Place. "You can tell that my English is from Spadina and College," Mihalik said with a laugh. His father, William, opened a second-hand clothing store in Kensington Market after fleeing Hungary.

"I was truly Hungarian; Hungary never left me," the former Queen's Jubilee Award winner said after receiving a bronze medal from Ontario Immigration Minister Mike Colle. "I was fortunate that my father came to Canada, so we can still speak Hungarian and be Hungarian." While most cultural organizations fade as the community matures, president Zsuzsa Papp Aykler said the foundation has seen a resurgence since the 1990s, when it began reaching out to the next generation – and its pockets.

Donations for the charity have risen ten-fold, to $100,000, over the past decade, as the foundation shifted its focus from immigrant settlement services to promoting Hungarian heritage among younger generations. Its signature program, Students Without Boundaries, was launched in 1994 to bring together students living as minorities in North America and in Europe at a 17-day summer camp in Hungary, where they learn about Hungarian language, history, literature, folklore and architecture. Some 135 teens went last year.

"It's amazing to be around other Hungarian kids. We're so different and yet we all shared similar experiences living in communities where, to get around every day and advance further in life, we have to speak a language which is foreign to our national (Hungarian) tongue," noted Katherine Magyarody, a University of Toronto student who participated in last year's camp as a counsellor. "But in order to grow and thrive, you must remember your roots. The foundation offers us the opportunity to do that." Others honoured included financial planner Gabor Vaski; dental technician Csaba Kral; Edith Lauer, chair emerita of the Hungarian American Coalition; and Marika Roy, national president of the Canadian Hungarian Engineers Association.

source: http://www.thestar.com/article/171444