March of the Living Hungary (MLH) was presented with U.S. Embassy’s Active Citizenship Award on July 20. Ambassador Kounalakis noted in her remarks that in the past two and a half years she had met a lot of people in Hungary who had made the country and their communities more livable through their hard work. She said there was “no better example for this attitude than March of the Living Hungary director Gabor Gordon and his foundation.”

Visiting U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Hannah Rosenthal presented the award to Mr. Gabor Gordon, the head of March of the Living Hungary. In her remarks, Special Envoy Rosenthal said, “The March of the Living Foundation is a tremendous example of an organization that promotes active citizenship through its dedication to promoting tolerance.” She also noted that volunteer-run March of the Living Hungary started with 300 people marching in its annual procession ten years ago and has grown into an annual event attracting over 30,000 participants.

Additionally, Special Envoy Rosenthal introduced the 2012 Hours Against Hate initiative, which she started last year with the U.S. Special Envoy for Muslim Communities. This initiative aims to encourage young people to volunteer an hour from their time to help people who look, live, pray or love differently, in an effort to promote respect and tolerance. Special Envoy Rosenthal raised the “recent wave of anti-Semitic incidents in Hungary and efforts in some quarters to rehabilitate fascist-era figures” and called this unacceptable. She urged young people in the audience to think about what they can do to be active citizens and commit themselves to volunteering against hate.

Source: U.S. Embassy Budapest

Photo: Special Envoy Hannah Rosenthal presents the Award to Gabor Gordon of March of the Living. (Embassy photo by Attila Németh)