The New Past and Future

Short summary of articles

The central feature of this issue is New York, long the undisputed metropolis of the world, and its Hungarian Jewish spirit. The dispersion of Hungarian Jewry began after 1919 with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In its twilight years, dualist Hungary had been the setting of an unexpected efflorescence of modern culture with an impressive Jewish offshoot that was suddenly nipped in the bud. The independent Hungary of Admiral Horthy could no longer provide fertile soil for this development; Hungarian Jewish intellectuals and artists struck out into the world, some laying down roots in the New World.
This pattern has been repeated somewhat in the post-Kádárian era, when sectors of the Hungarian Jewry, many part of that generations born after the Holocaust, left their homeland for good or began to split their time abroad. (Our Berlin issue represented this phenomenon.)
(Artists and scientists are only the tip of the iceberg which perhaps is not generally known.)
The writing of Ágnes Heller entitled New York Nostalgia tells the story of an immigration that lasted more than two decades. What makes the writing peculiar is that hardly did the immigration come to an end when it aroused almost immediately feelings of nostalgia. Géza Röhrig is the most important representative of his generation who lived in New York for a decade but never wrote one single line in which we meet the colors and tastes of the city. Only the painful memory of Hungary is captured in his poetry. We salute the poet on his fortieth birthday. József Krupp reviews his life-work (his latest volume Law/Múlt és Jövő, 2006) and János Kőbányai elucidates why such attention is due to a poet so young. We receive the gift of a series of verses from the poet. Gábor Andor Tooth paid a visit to the New York studio of András Böröcz and interviewed one of the outstanding talents of his generation. The study by Ágnes Horváth introduces Péter Lajtai, a wandering Hungarian Jewish artist who also spent time in New York. A most timely study introduces a problematique that goes back two millenia with resonance in our own age. David Flusser examines how the two political and intellectual workshop of the Hasmonean and the Essene related to the phenomenon of the Roman Empire, and what kind of emotional and strategic relations they developed in opposing the first great power.
It is not only Hungarians who choose New York to be their home; there are also New Yorkers who come to live in Hungary. Michael Miller, an American historian settled in Budapest (precisely in its old Jewish quarters) and is teaching in the Jewish studies program of the Central European University. This is the second time that we publish his studies, this time an interesting account about the Jewish cemetery of Nikolsburg with many Hungarian bearings. David Rosenberg, whom I met this April in Jerusalem at Kissufim, an international conference of Jewish writers is also of Hungarian origin. The important American poet makes his debut in this periodical and is interpreted by György Kozma who has a similar field of interest. Several participants of this congress will be introduced in our following issues.
János László Farkas wrote his family saga that goes back two hundred years, all this under the pretext of a dedication by Attila József. The study of Tibor Grüll analyses the characteristics of ancient history writing in connection with the study of David Flusser. We celebrated not long ago the 100th anniversary of the birth of István Székács-Schönberger whose book of memoirs, The Childhood of a Jewish Citizen was published by Múlt és Jövő. This time we publish here his important psychoanalytical study about the Holocaust syndrome written right after the tragic occurrences in 1947.

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Content

Ágnes Heller: Ágnes Heller: New York Nostalgia

Géza Röhrig: Poems of Géza Röhrig

János Kőbányai: To be Authentic. Géza Röhrig is Forty Years Old.

József Krupp: De Profundis. Géza Röhrig: a law

Ágnes Horváth: The Lajtai-Production – a sample

Gábor Andor Tooth: From Carbon Paper to Indelible Pencil. A Visit to András Böröcz

Rosenberg, David: Dreams about Being Eaten Alive

David Flusser: The Roman Empire in Hasmonean and Essen Eyes

Tibor Grüll: „Remember the Future!” Profecy and History Writing among the Ancient Jews

Michael M. Miller: The Jewish Cemetery at Nikolsburg: A Final Burial of ”ir vaem bejisrael”

István Székács Schönberger: Malfunctions of the Ego at a Time of War

János László Farkas: Dr. Sándor Révész from Békéscsaba

**: Observer

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