About Us
The Foundation consists of three important groups working together to meet our goals.
Our volunteer board of directors in Toronto sets the direction and programs of the Foundation and forms small committees to oversee our various activities.
Our donors are comprised of individuals and corporations from across Canada, the United States and Europe who provide the financial basis to allow us to operate.
Our many volunteers assist in the organization, operation and execution of our projects, they consist of a wide range of community activists, friends of the organization, past participants of the program as well as those who simply believe that through education we can create leaders for the future and make the world a better place.
We are very grateful for the members of each of these groups as without any one of them we would not be able to widen the horizons and change the lives of so many young people from around the world.
Goals
- To educate and enlighten Canadians regarding the history and culture of Hungary and the history of Hungarian immigration to and settlement in Canada. (See list of publications)
- To support students studying Hungarian language, literature, history and culture through scholarships.
- To promote Canadian values of multiculturalism and tolerance through a Scholarship exchange program– Students Without Boundaries – for students from across Canada, the United States and European countries.
Awards
The Students Without Boundaries Programme won the first Charlemagne Youth Prize from the European Parliament in 2008 for its outstanding work in expressing the ideals of European identity and integration. The program won the jury’s unanimous support as the best youth-oriented program among more than 400 organizations that submitted entries. Moreover, the program was lauded for creating a long-term network of support for the students from different countries through the ongoing Rákoczi Family Circle. The Rákoczi Foundation promotes the Canadian values and ideals of multiculturalism and tolerance through the Students Without Boundaries programme.
Students Without Boundaries has received many other distinguished honors. In July 2010, the program was awarded the József Antall Award by the Corvinus University. In November of 2012, the founders of the Students Without Boundaries programme, Béla Aykler and Susan Papp-Aykler, were awarded the George Washington Award by the American Hungarian Foundation in New York City for their on-going work to promote Hungarian causes and the support of Hungarian students around the world.
Our History
Founded in 1953, The Rákóczi Association was established as an organization dedicated to maintaining Hungarian cultural traditions in Canada and helping Hungarian-Canadians establish roots in their adopted homeland. In 1976, after an official name change, the Association became the Rákóczi Foundation. The Foundation turned its focus to education, first, by exposing Canadians to Hungarian culture and history and the impact of Hungarian immigrants on the development of Canada; and second, by helping students in their pursuit of Hungarian language, culture and history education. The Foundation is a pillar of the community in its commitment to students through scholarship programs and grants, support of conferences at the University of Toronto and publications.
Our Namesake
Ferenc Rákoczi II (1673-1735) led an uprising against the autocratic rule of the Habsburgs that lasted from 1703-1711. It was guerrilla warfare against the military might of a great European power, the Habsburg Empire, and it continued for seven years due to the sheer endurance of Ferenc Rákoczi II and his devoted soldiers, many of them joining from the ranks of the peasantry. To this day, Ferenc Rákoczi II is one of “the most loved and pure and noble figures in Hungarian history.” When the uprising was finally crushed, he went into exile with his entourage and spent the last twelve years of his life in Turkey. To this day, he is remembered as a cosmopolitan, a European with an unshakable love of his country. Ferenc Rákoczi was one of the first members of the aristocracy who devoted his life to improving the lives of the peasantry and serfs. He was the first aristocrat to bring together the nationalities in the Carpathian Basin.
For further reading, see Paul Lendvai, “Ferenc Rákoczi’s Fight for Freedom from the Habsburgs,” The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003, p. 145-159.
