From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Hungarians/Nandor F. Dreisziger
Throughout the first century of Hungarian immigration to Canada, community life usually revolved around ethnic churches and social clubs. Mutual-benefit associations, the Hungarian-language press, and regional and national federations of Hungarian organizations had more specialized functions.
Mutual-benefit insurance associations responded to urgent needs. Injury, sickness, or death of a wage-earner in the family could bring destitution. For a small sum paid monthly or weekly, participants in mutual-benefit organizations were assured some financial help in case of serious illness, or a lump sum to the family in case of the subscriber’s death. Many Hungarian fraternities and church groups offered such services as a sideline, but some organizations operated only mutual-benefit schemes for Hungarians and, sometimes, other immigrants as well.
Mutual-benefit associations came into being soon after 1900 in the Canadian west. The First Hungarian SickBenefit Society of Lethbridge, Alberta, and the King St Stephen Roman Catholic Sick-Benefit Association of Winnipeg, Manitoba, functioned – without major interruptions – for several decades. In Hamilton, Ontario, the First Hungarian Workers’ Sick-Benefit Association (FHWS-BA) was founded in 1907, and it established branches in other centres. In 1926 one branch broke away and set up the Hungarian Sick-Benefit Association of Brantford (HS-BAB). Soon thereafter both bodies reorganized themselves. In Hamilton there emerged the Canadian Hungarian Sick-Benefit Federation (CHS-BF), and in Brantford the Eastern Canadian Sick-Benefit Association (ECS-BA). Both these Ontario-based organizations set up branches in various parts of Canada. Their rivalry was fuelled by an intensifying ideological divide: the Hamilton group came under leftist influence, while non-radical Hungarians gravitated towards the Brantford organization.
Conditions in the Depression favoured the Hamilton group, whose leftist propaganda attracted many new members disgruntled at economic and social conditions. As non-Magyar immigrants also joined, the organization renamed itself the Independent Sick-Benefit Federation. In the early 1940s the predominantly Hungarian chapters formed the Kossuth Sick-Benefit Federation (KS-BF) within the larger organization. In many communities the KS-BF’s members set up workers’ clubs that focused on social activities. As members grew older, many gradually abandoned active involvement.
Not all, or even most, Hungarian Canadians belonged to these mutual-aid organizations. Many clubs and churches operated mutual-benefit schemes, some (such as the Self-Improvement Society of Welland, Ontario) quite successfully. In the 1950s these organizations declined, evidently in response to the emergence of the state-sponsored social safety net for all Canadians and insurance plans offered by private companies. Nevertheless, many continued to function as credit unions.
In localities with no organized religious life, secular social clubs provided entertainment and catered to cultural and economic needs, especially in working-class communities. During the Depression the Communist Party began spreading its ideas among Hungarian workers. In Hungarian leftist associations political activity was almost a sideline; the groups had excursions, suppers, dances, and amateur theatre productions much in the manner of the churches or non-Communist clubs.
After 1945 the influence of the leftist associations gradually declined, but lay organizations emerged to cater to professions such as engineers, journalists, foresters, agronomists, and doctors. These bodies, too, sponsored entertainment and cultural events. Each stream of newcomers established its own lay clubs and circles. The tendency towards organizational fragmentation – and consequently the keen competition for members – persisted well into the 1980s.
Perhaps because of linguistic isolation, Hungarian immigrants have developed and maintained a vigorous ethnic press. In the United States Hungarian-language press products ranging from monthly newsletters to biweekly and even daily newspapers were published during the first decades of the twentieth century. In Canada the Hungarian press emerged more slowly, probably because of the availability of American offerings. Pre1914 attempts in Canada proved ephemeral. The Kanadai magyar ujság (Canadian Hungarian News; Kipling, Saskatchewan/Winnipeg, 1924–76) became popular under able and energetic editor-publishers. The Canadai magyar népszava/Canadian Hungarian People’s Voice (Hamilton, Ont., 1925–30) was replaced by the Canadai kis ujság/Little Hungarian News of Canada (Crowland/ Welland, Ont., 1930?–41?), which was affiliated with the Hungarian Sick-Benefit Association of Brantford, Ontario. The Kanadai magyar munkás/Canadian Hungarian Worker (Hamilton/Toronto, 1929–67) gave way to Új szó/ New Word (Toronto, 1968–87).
During the Depression and the war years, the Hungarian ethnic press was dominated by the Kanadai magyar munkás and the Kanadai magyar újság. The former became a mouthpiece of Canada’s Communist movement; the latter received a subsidy from the government in Budapest. Both attracted the attention of security men in Ottawa. The Munkás/Worker was watched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as the Communist ethnic press was considered a threat to internal security, especially during the Nazi-Soviet Alliance (1939–41). After 1941 the Újság/News also came under suspicion, denounced as an apologist for the pro-Axis Horthy government in Budapest. The two papers re-emerged after 1945 as once again Canada’s two main Magyar-language newspapers.
In the 1950s newly arrived displaced persons and refugees were not attracted to the “old” products and launched several new periodicals. Today, only two remain: the Kanadai magyarság/Canadian Hungarian Toronto, 1951– ), renamed Magyarság in 1982, and the Magyar élet/Hungarian Life (Buenos Aires, Toronto, 1948– ), which started in Argentina but transferred to Toronto in 1957. Both weeklies cover events in Hungary, the world, and Canada, and they feature many advertisements. They are sold in Hungarian shops in central Canadian cities and have subscribers elsewhere in Canada and the United States. Their editorial line has always been patriotic and stridently anti-Communist. Many Hungarians who found them to be politically too far to the right turned to the Nyugati Magyarság/Hungarians of the West (Calgary, Montreal, 1982– ), which has followed a more middle-of-the-road editorial line. Magyar-speaking Jews have had the Menorah (Toronto, 1961–66), later the Menorah egyenlo”ség/Menorah Equality (Toronto, 1966– ), which quickly became the principal paper of Hungarian Jews in North America.
There are also Hungarian-language journals, most sponsored by churches. Some started between the wars. The Az Otthon (The Home; Winnipeg, c. 1925–38) and its successor, the Tárogató (Toronto, 1938–50) (the tárogató is a Hungarian double-reed musical instrument), received support from the United Church of Canada. After the latter’s demise, the Új élet (New Life; several cities, 1950–70) and its supplement and later successor, the Csendes percek (Quiet Moments; several cities, 1952– ), catered to Hungarian Protestants. The Orszem (Sentinel; Welland, 1930s) and the A Sziv (The Heart; Budapest, Hamilton, Toronto, 1952–91) were Roman Catholic publications.
Post-1945 immigrants have been served by the monthly Képes világhiradó (Illustrated World Review; Toronto, 1958–69) and by periodicals from Hungarian cultural centres: Tárogató (Vancouver, 1974– ), Toborzó (Recruiting; Edmonton, 1981– ), Magyar hirmondó (Hungarian Courier; Calgary, 1980–86), and Krónika (Chronicle; Toronto, 1975–95). A host of others, often intermittent or ephemeral, also have appeared over the years. As well, the Young Magyar-American (Winnipeg, c. 1936– 39) was produced in English by the publishers of the Kanadai magyar újság for second- and third-generation Hungarians in North America. The Hungarian Studies Review (Toronto, 1974– ) has served as a forum for scholars in North America and elsewhere to publish studies relating to Hungary or things Hungarian.
Regional or nation-wide federations of their organizations have also served Hungarian Canadians. The first emerged in the west in 1908, when community leaders founded the Canadai Magyar Szövetség (Canadian Hungarian Federation, or CHF) to promote Hungarian culture. From headquarters in Winnipeg the CHF’s leaders tried to organize local chapters in all Hungarian colonies, but they had very little money to do so. Accordingly, in 1910 a new umbrella organization, the Canadai Magyar Testvéri Szövetség (Canadian Hungarian Fraternal Federation, or CHFF) was set up to create bilingual schools and assign Magyar-speaking priests and ministers to Hungarian parishes and congregations. It obtained financial support from Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberal government and enlisted the support of numerous Hungarian organizations, including both the Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations of Winnipeg. Other Catholic parishes refused to join, however. Their priests, or their superiors, feared that the CHFF’s scheme threatened the political clout of the francophone church hierarchy in the west, and the work of the CHFF faltered, especially after the defeat of the Laurier government in 1911. During the war, organizations composed of “enemy aliens” became defunct.
With the resumption of immigration from Hungary in the mid-1920s, these attempts were renewed, and two federations emerged. Early in 1928, in Winnipeg, the Kanadai Magyar Szövetség (Canadian Hungarian Federation, or CHF) elected a slate of officers and adopted a constitution. Unfortunately, not all delegates agreed with the results, especially with the slate of officers. Disgruntled elements and people who had a different organization in mind established a rival federation at a convention in Saskatoon. Not until the intervention by an emissary of the Hungarian government in the spring of 1929 did leaders of the two bodies resolve their differences and merge under the name of the CHF. Unlike the 1928 federation, the new CHF included representatives of both the old and the new arrivals and of both Catholic and Protestant settlers.
The CHF’s new executive spent the rest of 1929 in feverish activity. Nevertheless, by the early 1930s, the CHF was in trouble. Little money could be collected from members hit badly by the Depression. To pay for operating expenses leaders had to borrow money, and to repay the loans they had to borrow more. They tried to sell life-insurance policies, in the manner of the mutual-benefit fraternities, but generated little profit. Within a few years, the federation became insolvent and ceased to function.
During World War II a new move was inspired from above, by officials of the new Nationalities Branch of the Department of National War Services. Though some city-wide federations of Hungarian organizations resulted from these efforts – most significantly, in Montreal – this undertaking failed as well; Hungarian Canadians were not used to government intervention in their affairs, and the Communist-controlled Munkás/Worker and the leaders of the Kossuth Federation denounced the plan.
In 1951 Prime Minister Louis St Laurent suggested that a national organization representing all Hungarians in Canada would be more effective in lobbying against the totalitarian regime in Budapest. Soon thereafter, a convention in Toronto established the Kanadai Magyarok Szövetsége (Canadian Hungarian Federation, or CHF). It was less ambitious than its predecessors, and its membership dues came not from individuals but from constituent organizations. The leftist clubs boycotted the attempt, but, since their influence was waning, their absence was of little concern.
The CHF has wielded a varying degree of influence in the community, depending on circumstances and its leaders. Since it usually limits its activities to political lobbying, other supra-communal organizations run many other functions. For example, the Széchenyi Society, headquartered in Calgary, has helped maintain Hungarian culture. It founded in 1978 a chair (professorship) of Hungarian studies at the University of Toronto, the first of many such “ethnic chairs” created in collaboration with the federal government. The Grand Committee of Hungarian Churches and Associations of Montreal, the Hungarian Canadian Cultural Council of Winnipeg, and other, more localized organizations have also accomplished a great deal. The Helicon Society in Toronto, for example, has promoted Hungarian education and supported Hungarian performing artists, poets, writers, and scholars. Toronto’s Rákóczi Association and numerous other organizations have taken on similar work.
