Magyar Baráti Közösség : ITT-OTT



	E Hungarian Renewal in Wallingford, CT Balázs B. Somogyi (Cheshire, CT) Hungarian churches, once the mainstay of Magyar community activities, have faced significant problems during the past decades: these were related to issues of staying power and relevance; fight-ing for mere survival had become the norm.The congregations con-tinued to dwindle in number. As a result of flagging attendance by Magyar church-goers, church services in Hungarian had to be curtailed drastically or were eliminated completely. A number of congregations simply died out. In a sadly parallel development,– the same decline and frag-mentation started to surface in the life of Hungarian clubs and cul-tural institutions. As far as Magyar activities and endeavors were concerned, decline, apathy, dissillusionment, closure, dissociation and failure had become the characteristics of current existence. It had truly become increasingly difficult to stay optimistic about the fate of Hungarian survival in North America. At the same time, there were signs of developments of a more promising nature. These were isolated, sometimes “ad hoc” in character, but promising, nevertheless. A new scout troop was established in Boston, while the “Hungarian Scouts in Exteris” had continued to function in a consistently robust fashion, with accomplishments of significance and dependably high quality. In my own state of Connecticut, the Fairfield-based “Magyar Studies of America,” under the noble and stubborn stewardship of Gyula Egervary (who, unfortunately, passed away a few months ago), sol-diered along bravely and continued to support a school for teaching and preserving the Hungarian language. At the same time, one could also hear of isolated instances of successful new Hungarian initia-tives taking place on the western shore of the United States. The Hungarian Community Club of Wallingford was established in 1918. The Hungarian Community Hall of Wallingford opened its door in the same year, and it has provided a reliable center sub-sequently for the Magyar population of central Connecticut. The Clubhouse was built by first-generation Hungarians – many hard-

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