The final chapter of the 110th anniversary celebration of St. Stephen’s Church in Passaic, NJ (see the July-August issue) was the visit of Dr. Áder János, President of the Hungarian Republic. He came to the United States for the United Nations General Assembly conference, and took time to meet with different Hungarian groups. His visit started out with a High Mass celebrated by Fr. László Vas, Pastor of St. Stephen’s church. Participating were the Hungarian knights of Malta; the newly appointed New York Consul General, Kumin Ferenc; and the Boy Scouts who led the procession into the church.
Afterwards, the Hungarian schools from the Tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) area presented their respective schools in the Mindszenty Hall. Since time was of the essence, each school had only a few minutes to tell its story. Yet some of the schools actually put on a little show.
Dr. Áder thanked all the participants for the interesting presentations. He also expressed his appreciation to the parents for their dedicated effort in bringing the children to the Hungarian school, sometimes from a great distance. He mentioned having wondered beforehand what ties Hungarians together? And he came to the conclusion that it is the Hungarian word, our language. He used a quotation from Tamási Áron, a Hungarian author from Transylvania: „A magyarságot nemzetté a magyar szó tette.” (The Hungarian word made the Hungarians to be a nation.)
Finally, the different Hungarian churches and organizations were presented by their leaders. They, as well as the Boy Scouts play a great part in helping the children become interested in Hungarian culture. A folk dance by the Csürdöngölő Folk Ensemble from New Brunswick, NJ was the closing number of the festivities. People could converse with the President in the little time left before he had to leave for the airport.

Zsuzsa Lengyel is President of Magyar Studies of America and Associate Webmaster of Magyar News Online.