View full sizeHungarian President Pal Schmitt will spend about a day-and-a-half in Cleveland before flying to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When Jozsef Antall visited Cleveland in 1991, many in America's largest Hungarian community saw a dream coming true. They rushed to pump the hand of Hungary's first democratically elected prime minister after the fall of communism.
Twenty years later, the arrival of a Hungarian national leader is stoking a warm welcome but no jubilee.
Pal Schmitt will become the first Hungarian president to visit Cleveland when he flies in today. But he arrives at a time when Hungarians on both sides of the ocean are feeling anxious and a bit let down.
It's been a rough introduction to capitalism for the small central European nation, which is stressed by high unemployment and a burdensome national debt.
"Hungary is struggling," said Laszlo Bojtos, a community leader who witnessed the hero's welcome for Antall.
The mortgage meltdown that precipitated the Great Recession sparked a worldwide economic crisis, just as Hungary was beginning to grow a high-tech economy.
"It's not as bad off as Greece or some of the others, but people are being told to be patient," said Bojtos, Hungary's honorary consul general in Cleveland. "It's a lot like [life] here."
Still, if business ties between Cleveland and Budapest have not flowered as some had hoped, the cultural and familial ties remain strong. President Schmitt will certainly feel welcome and probably feel at home.
More than 100,000 people in the seven-county region claim Hungarian heritage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It's an unusually proud and culturally aware community, thanks largely to the "56ers," freedom fighters who fled Hungary after Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Cleveland's last European immigrant wave re-energized cultural institutions like the Hungarian Scouts, Hungarian churches and Hungarian Saturday school. Northeast Ohio is home to the largest Hungarian-speaking community in North America, according to the Modern Language Association.
The president of Hungary, elected by Parliament, is of lesser status than the prime minister, who is elected by the people. But Schmitt is considered an engaging statesman, a former Olympian and ambassador, and community leaders are elated he's coming.
"We've been campaigning for a year" for the president to strengthen Cleveland ties with a visit, said Edith Lauer, a local 56er and a founder of the Washington-based Hungarian-American Coalition. "This government has really made an effort to reach out to the diaspora."
Schmitt, elected last year, will spend about a day and half in Cleveland on his way to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
He's expected to lay wreaths at 7 p.m. today at the Cardinal Mindszenty statue and the Freedom Fighters Memorial near East 12th Street and Lakeside Avenue. Afterward, he will swear in some new citizens, "co-nationals" who will hold U.S. and Hungarian citizenship.
The president will start Sunday with an 8:30 a.m. visit to the Hungarian Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park, then attend the 9:30 a.m. service at historic St. Elizabeth of Hungary on Buckeye Road. He's to be feted at a Sunday luncheon at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center.
For luncheon tickets and details, call 440-247-5144.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: rsmith@plaind.com, 216-999-4024