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CHAPTER 5 BACKGROUND INFORMATION
to speak the language of their parents"??. It reinforces the notion that with
every intergenerational cleft, the use of the Hungarian language reduces
pointing gradually toward language death.
A strong institutional background of ethnic communities usually fosters
language maintenance efforts”**, but the prevalence of English in the traditional
ethnic Hungarian institutions could not be hampered by Hungarian ethnic
organizations.
Since the very beginning, Hungarian-American communities have had their
own ethnic institutions. The first Roman Catholic Church (St. Elizabeth) was
built by Hungarians in Cleveland, Ohio in 1893?*’. The first two congregations
of the Reformed Church were organized in 1891, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’.
Churches, fraternal associations, Hungarian summer and Sunday schools,
and clubs have supported the maintenance efforts of Hungarian-Americans.
The Reformed Church particularly has been an “avid supporter of Hungar¬
ian language instruction”. Between the two world wars, churches in fifty¬
six cities offered Saturday or Sunday Hungarian language instruction and 68
churches conducted summer school classes”*°.
Besides the church organizations, Hungarians also had their secular
organizations. With a view to provide sickness benefits for their fellow
Hungarians, the first and largest, the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association
was founded in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in 18867’. By the 1950s, this
organization had lost its dominantly Hungarian character and was turned
into the William Penn Insurance Association*’. Unlike Verhovay, the second
largest secular organization, the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America,
founded in 1986 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was more successful in retaining
its Hungarian character. It sponsored Hungarian school camps, books and
educational materials”*.
Early Hungarian settlers founded their own newspapers, of which two be¬
came dailies; Szabadsag founded in 1891, in Cleveland, Ohio and Amerikai
Magyar Nepszava, in 1899, in New York City.
At present, of the Hungarian community organizations, only churches
and clubs function, with the former usually offering mixed language services.
Hungarian language media services are also on the decline. In the present
situation, only Hungarian newspapers of national distribution are available, and
235 Papp, Beszédből világ, 439
236 Bartha, Nyelvhasználat, nyelvmegtartás, nyelvcsere, 120
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 116
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 119
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 120
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 120
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 123
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 123
Papp, Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, 124
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* 90 ¢