After an adventurous, perhaps even tragic childhood, Gábor Mózsi, born and raised in Budapest, moved to America when he was 21. He initially became involved in the Chicago Hungarian community as a photographer. In 2023 he was elected president of the Hungarian (Magyar) Club, following a major leadership change. He also joined the board of the Hungarian Communion of Friends (Magyar Baráti Közösség, MBK) last year and helped launch a youth leadership training program at the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC).
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Your presence in Chicago is due to a very unusual family story.
Indeed. My father, the late poet Ferenc Mózsi, was an active member of the Chicago Hungarian community from the early 80s. His life story and escape journey from Communist Hungary is so unique that a movie could be made about it. He graduated from high school in Budapest in 1967. After working as a manual laborer for three years, he fled to the West in the summer of 1970. After some preparation, he packed his documents in a small plastic bag and clinging to a log, swam across the Mediterranean Sea from then Yugoslavia to Italy. Italian fishermen pulled him half-dead from the sea—if he wasn’t found by the Italians, he’d have been dead or put in prison behind the Iron Curtain. He spent a few years in Western Europe, then in various cities in the United States before arriving and settling in Chicago in 1978. In addition to his work as a community organizer, in the early 1980s he launched a travel agency and a publishing company. Most of the Hungarians living here at the time bought their airline tickets to Hungary through him, and he also traveled extensively, bringing and selling Hungarian books from behind the Iron Curtain and publishing titles in Chicago that weren’t allowed to be published by the Communist censors in Hungary.
This is only a part of his adventurous life, as you weren’t born here…
The story and drama of the great Mózsi family is that over the decades, my father had multiple relationships, wives, and children across two continents. For a long time, Chicago was the stable family base for him, while I was born in Hungary as a love child outside of marriage. For many years, the family and community here didn’t know about my existence. I, on the other hand, since my mother brought me up practically alone, and I only saw my father for half days once or twice a year, knew already as a child that he had a family in America. I had half siblings who I hadn’t met until after my father’s death. In 2005, when he was diagnosed with cancer, he moved back to Hungary. Thus, I finally got a chance to get to know him better at the age of 12, but for that year and a half I also had to watch his health deteriorate and him eventually dying… In the meantime, we got in contact with his wife at the time, Mónika, who had a daughter, Panni. Mónika came to visit my father several times in Hungary, so we got to know each other personally. Dad passed away in 2007, at the age of 60. A few months earlier, he told his other two daughters from his previous marriage, Anikó and Timi, that he had also had a son in Hungary. I first met Timi at the funeral, we had no contact before. She was 16, I was 13. Three years later I became curious about America. With Mónika’s help, I spent a summer here. Five years later I moved to Chicago with Timi’s and her mother’s help.
Tell us more about what your father’s legacy means to you.
When I was in Budapest recently, I was reading my old diaries about how his life and death struck me as a child. I always longed to know him, collected stories about him and read his poetry books. I’ve also written poems as a child; though rarely but still do to this day. We’d share these poems with him via email—he praised, encouraged, and shaped my relationship with poetry. Although we rarely met in person, we kept frequent contact by phone. When I visited America for the first time in 2010, I came across multiple traces and memories of his life. At 16, I was very strongly influenced by what I experienced here. The two summer months were rounded off by the annual ITT-OTT (Here-There) Conference organized by the Hungarian Communion of Friends, where my father had been an active participant since the early 1980s. He wasn’t formally an organizer, but archives from those years are filled with photos of his performances…
I have a rather ambitious plan for 2027. During a recent conversation with his former co-performer, guitarist János Rudolf Tóth, I came up with the idea of a Mózsi 100 memorial event. Dad was born in 1947, passed away in 2007, so he’d be 80 in 2027, and died 20 years ago, hence the 100. I’d like to have a memorial event in Budapest and Szeged, where his former friends and collaborators would also perform. Many musicians and other artists had joint performances with my father; he helped many to perform in America, too—I’d like to bring those stories back.
What were your first impressions of America at the age of 16?
It was my first insight into the Hungarian community in the diaspora and I began to look for answers to many questions that had never occurred to me before—not only because of my young age, but also because at home, Hungarian identity is so obvious that we don’t think about it much. But in America there is a reason why the Hungarian language, traditions and cultural values are so important. I also found photography as a profession here. Until the last year of high school, I was going to be a programmer. However, at the ITT-OTT Conference in 2010, there was a guest speaker, an American photographer, Stephen Spinder, who had lived in Hungary and Transylvania and had photo books published from his photographs captured there. He gave several lectures during the week, showing his photographs, and held workshops, which really struck a chord with me.
Why and how did you leave for Chicago five years later?
After completing the last three years of high school with advanced exams in two years, I left home at 18 and set out on my own. I attended two photography schools in Hungary, built up a portfolio, made professional contacts and started my career as a professional photographer. At the beginning of the summer of 2015, my sister Timi spent the summer in Hungary and our relationship became so strong that ultimately she gave me the final push to try my luck in America. Timi’s mother Ágnes offered to take me in, so I moved in with them. I’m very grateful to Ágnes for her decision, which was probably not an easy one. We’ve grown very fond of each other over the years. Nádas Gyula, now my brother-in-law, has also been an incredibly supportive mentor and inspiration over the past decade, guiding me in both my career and leadership in the Hungarian community.
Did you manage to find a job quickly?
The fact that I had my ‘newly found’ family to live with and the dual citizenship helped me a lot in settling in and getting a job. At my first job I was photographing used cars at a car dealership, which wasn’t glorious but I had to start somewhere. After a few months, I applied at the same photography company where I currently work as a manager. I started as a freelance part-time photographer, then did portrait photography, and in 2021 I became the studio manager and leader of the team I had been part of before. In 2022 we opened two new studios. Currently, I manage the operations of the three studios in the Chicago area, with 20–25 employees combined. The company is a family-owned, medium-sized business. We are the photography vendor for several major school districts, and the division I’m managing focuses on high school seniors. It’s about creative, multi-outfit photo shoots for graduating students, which is also a lifetime experience for them—very common in the US.
You say it’s creative, but it looks a bit boring to a European eye. Considering that your father was an artist, I dare to ask: does it satisfy you professionally?
It absolutely does. Variety and new challenges attract me and keep me active and engaged. I once wanted to be a photojournalist; one of my photography degrees is from the Association of Hungarian Journalists. I also dreamed of becoming a presidential photographer at the White House… I’m happy and satisfied in my current position though, because this leadership opportunity helped me grow in many ways. I also find joy and challenge in developing my leadership skills. I don’t take photos on a daily basis anymore, but I still photograph a few weddings a year, so I’m not completely distanced from field work. The profession has also changed a lot lately, with photojournalist jobs becoming increasingly scarce. But what I’m doing now is still very much in demand, so I don’t regret going in this direction at all. I really love photography as an art and have a great appreciation for the work of the photojournalists of the last century—that’s why I gave a presentation on this topic at last year’s ITT-OTT Conference. One day I’d like to have my own exhibition, and go back to my roots in this respect as once street photography was very close to my heart. But now it’s not a priority; I’ve also got quite a lot of community work to do…
Which have grown in number and prominence at an unusual pace. What’s the reason for all of this?
There is indeed an interesting parallel between my promotion at work and the almost out of the blue opportunity in the Chicago Hungarian community. In 2022–23 I joined the Hungarian Club’s nominating committee, where we interviewed board members about their future plans. It turned out that not only President Andrea Stétz, but also nearly two thirds of the board at the time wanted to step down for various reasons. This caused no small panic for the future of the board and the club itself. I managed to turn that moment into an opportunity, and I thought: why not try to lead it myself? Our first priority was to save this 100-year-old organization from possible extinction. We managed to assemble a board at this turning point, with many new members, but also with people like the Megyeri couple, who bring decades of experience to ensure continuity.
Let’s go back in time. How did you first become involved in the Club’s life?
I got involved through my profession. In 2016 I started photographing various events organized by the Club. In 2020 we were unable to have an in-person ball due to the Covid pandemic, and the board approached me with the idea of a virtual gala ball. Most of it consisted of pre-recorded video interviews, the Club President’s and the General Consul’s toasts as well as the Master of Ceremonies’ speech, but there was also live streaming, and we even drew a virtual raffle. In fact, it turned into an all-night movie that I practically filmed and edited myself. Everyone put on their ball gowns and tuxedos and sat in front of the webcams. After the end of the official program, we stayed there for two–three hours, chatting informally.
What does the Hungarian Club currently do?
The Hungarian Club is a cultural and social organization, independent of religious and political affiliations, founded in 1922. It isn’t an umbrella organization, but we try to cooperate with every Hungarian organization, including weekend schools, scouts, folk dance groups or churches. We have four main events each year, attended by representatives and members of all other local Hungarian organizations. One of our main annual events is the Annual Luncheon—electing officers in every second year—, which conducts an annual review and discussion of plans where everyone interested in the work and future of the club is very welcome. We don’t have our own Club house. The main topics at our general assembly last year were as to whether we should own or lease space and whether there is a need for smaller events, such as a movie screening or a concert.
We’ll come back to this, for now let’s continue with listing the four main events, their aim and attendance.
Our next big traditional event is the picnic on the last Sunday in August. The other organizations also have various summer events, for example, the Catholic Church has its own summer picnic, while the Norridge Reformed Church has the Gulyás Festival, the largest Hungarian event in Chicago in terms of attendance, reaching 2,000 people. The Club always supports it and has a small tent where we advertise our own events. We organize our picnics in a large forest preserve, where we sell a variety of traditional Hungarian dishes and homemade pastries, as well as freshly prepared pancakes and lángos. With the help of the Borozda Folk Dance Ensemble, we organize a small folk dance hall event (táncház) as well. In 2024 we had over 400 people attending, in 2023 about 5–600. The goal of the event is to come together as a community and spend time with one another.
Our third big event is the St. Nicholas Lunch and Christmas Fair on the first or second Sunday of December. This is our most heartwarming family event. We rent a large community space and kitchen where we cook a traditional Hungarian meal. Local vendors with Hungarian ties offer their products at the Christmas fair. We only charge for the lunch to pay the rent. There is also folk dancing, and children receive a handmade, Hungarian-style package from Mikulás (Santa Claus), who wishes them Merry Christmas in Hungarian. Attendance is usually around 200 people.
The fourth, your biggest event is the annual Gala Ball, also an old tradition. What’s the purpose: to get together or to raise money?
Traditionally we hold the ball on the last Saturday in January, this year exceptionally on the first of February. The Gala Ball in its current form has been organized and held since the 80s. Recently I was browsing through our archives and found an invitation to a Masked Ball in a downtown Chicago hotel from 1932—this means that the Club had a similarly elegant event nearly 100 years ago. The aim of the ball is to provide the Hungarian community with an opportunity to get together in an elegant environment. As I noted in my presidential address at the Gala, these days an elegant personal gathering has a special meaning. While in many places this tradition is disappearing, I believe that the significance of personal relationships and shared experiences is being enhanced. At our ball, we combine this experience with Hungarian language, culture, food, music and dance.
Last year and this year we had approximately 250 people at the Gala Ball. This is a lower number than in the years before the Covid pandemic, when the attendance was around 350–400, or 10–20 years ago when the Gala Ball reached 600–800 people. 250 seems to be a good number, but hopefully it will increase. There are about 40,000 people of Hungarian origin living in the Chicago area, but only a fraction of them are active in the Hungarian community. The number of people we can bring to our events is in the hundreds; I wouldn’t dare to say a thousand.
The Gala Ball has a very rich program. Could you list the highlights?
The event starts by the signing of the national anthems of both Hungary and the United States of America. Afterwards the Borozda Dance Group, 15 years old this year, presented their new choreography, this year trained by KCSP scholars Viki Német and Bálint Deák. Their performance was followed by welcome speeches by the Club President and the Hungarian General Consul of Chicago, currently Balázs Mártonffy, PhD, as well as by the guest of honor, who this year was State Secretary Tristan Azbej. Afterwards, the results of our scholarship program are announced and presented. Through the generous donations of local donors, we provide one-time scholarship support to local Hungarian students studying in the Chicago area, based on volunteer work performed in the Hungarian community. We hope that this will also encourage young people to dedicate time to community work. After all, most of them stop attending weekend Hungarian school and scouting when they finish high school, thus, as soon as they get to college they are out of the Hungarian community. This is our last chance to hold on to them and keep them here. And speaking of young people, I’d like to highlight our debutantes and their escorts, who numbered 12 this year. Like the members of the folk dance ensemble, they have been preparing for months for this event, which is also a strong community-building activity. This year, the dances were taught by Éva Simon, and the rehearsals took place at the Reformed Church in Norridge, where Pastor Áron Trufán and his wife, Kata, helped run the rehearsals. Music and all night long entertainment was provided by the exhilarating Budapest Showtime Band from Hungary.
Finally, I’d like to highlight the Hungarian Soul Award, which we’ve been granting since 2013, to a person or a couple who have been doing volunteer work for decades in the local Hungarian community. Last year this award went to Erika Bokor, PhD and her husband József Megyeri. This year we awarded András Demeter and his wife Pálma. András is a previous president and current vice-president of the Club and president of the Chicago Hungarian Cultural Council.
Your community involvement has also grown rapidly beyond Chicago. How?
The Hungarian Club is a member organization of the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC). I attended their annual Mikulás Dinner and General Meeting for the first time in December 2023, representing the Hungarian Club. In the spring of 2024, HAC fellow Luca Mórocz contacted me about the idea of the Hungarian Young Professional Engagement (HYPE) Network. I was part of a similar initiative that was launched in Chicago during the Covid pandemic, but it eventually stopped, as it didn’t have a precise, articulated objective. The Coalition’s initiative was much better planned; Luca had already put a lot of thought into it together with HAC fellow Réka Lenox Veres, HAC President Andrea Lauer Rice, and HAC Board Member Zsolt Szekeres. The HYPE Network is a leadership training program with networking opportunities to train the next generation of leaders of Hungarian diaspora organizations. The official launch took place at the Hungarian Summit in Florida last year; by then we already had the participants of the first cohort, trying to bring together a geographically and professionally diverse group.
You and Réka also completed the training. How do you feel it has worked out?
We had 20 participants and six presentations by leaders in various disciplines including, for example, medical researchers and lawyers. Not all the speakers had Hungarian ties, but most of them had a connection to Hungary or to Hungarian Americans, and each speaker talked about what Hungarian identity or connections had given them in their own field or how they had worked with Hungarians. At the end of the one-and-a-half-hour-long presentations there’s Q&A, and before each presentation, we gave mentors such as HAC President Andrea Lauer Rice, HAC Vice President Piros Pazaurek, founder of HungarianHub in Florida, or Emese Varga, cofounder of Boskola in Boston the opportunity to give a 10–15-minute presentation about their work and their own member organizations, to educate and inspire the participants. Mentors play an important role, as our aim is to involve as many people of all ages as possible and make them active in the network: participants are from 18 to 40 years old, while mentors are from 40+.
To answer your question: yes, I think we’ve achieved our first objectives. One can apply for the second cohort until 31 March 2025, the next training round runs from June to December, and certificates will be awarded at the HAC Mikulás Dinner. Everyone who has completed a training course can take part in the next ones; thus training and networking remain ongoing. The members of the first cohort became co-founders to share the responsibility of maintaining the training and the network. It’s up to everyone to recruit in all three categories: participant, speaker, mentor. We’re already seeing a good number of applications for the second cohort.
What about the Hungarian Communion of Friends (MBK), which you have recently joined the board of?
In December 2024 I was elected to the board of MBK, organizing the ITT-OTT Conferences. Last year I gave a presentation on photography and a panel discussion on HYPE, but from now on I have to be actively involved also in the planning of the conferences. These various board memberships provide a cumulative opportunity and connection point to bridge and connect various diaspora groups and organizations. In addition, the openness both at the HAC and MBK leaderships have towards young people is very valuable.
MBK has been organizing the ITT-OTT Conferences for 50 years and the question of continuation has been raised several times. Lately, the occasional threat of closure has been very wisely turned into a dialogue by MBK. I think it’s a very mature attitude to talk openly about the future: whether there is enough demand and energy to continue. The good news is that there seems to be a refreshment in the MBK too, not only in the leadership, but also among the lectures and participants of the ITT-OTT Conferences, which may give a new momentum to MBK. Last year, many families with young children participated, HAC got also involved, the president had her own presentation, and Vivien Bencze represented the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF), which works closely together with HAC in Washington, D.C. By the way, the Conferences’ location is brilliant, not only because of the magnificent natural setting in the southern part of Ohio, in the mountains near the beautiful Lake Hope, but also because it’s equally a 7–8 hour drive from multiple cities with significant Hungarian communities including Washington, D.C., New York, Cleveland, Detroit, and of course, Chicago.
Back to Chicago: how do you see the past two years and the future of the Hungarian Club as well as your presidency?
I think the last two years have been successful in the sense that we’ve held all four traditional events and there has been a demand for new, smaller ones. This is perhaps because we’ve conducted a poll of our own management, our membership and our community about what direction to take, what we should keep or change. This was also important, because many on the current board are completely new or have new responsibilities, as I do, and we didn’t want to fall into the mistake of assuming to know better than the previous board members or the community itself what the right direction is. I’ve learned a tremendous amount, and I owe a lot to this opportunity and to our community as well as the organizations that I’ve been able to get to know and get involved with over the last two years, either as a participant or as an organizer. These two years have made me realize that community building is a way of life, a commitment, and important and rewarding volunteer work, which provides a purpose, inspiration, and motivation in everyday life. I was elected president for a two-year term, and if our Club members trust me again, I’d be honored to continue serving.
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After the interview, Gábor chose a poem by his father at my request:
Chicago1
City of my family’s refuge
Harmony of home and lair
Idyllic Hungarianness
Candied homesickness
Arsenal of my wishes
God of my(self) making
On whose wings I get there
- Ferenc Mózsi, My POEMpire. 50 selected poems, Translated by Peter Hargitai, Framo Publishing Chicago & M-Szivárvány Alapítvány, Budapest, p. 82. ↩︎
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