American actor Tony Curtis,
whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Hungary in the 1920s, has
recently wrapped up a three-week visit to the country his father and
mother once called home. During his stay, Mr. Curtis shot two 30-minute
commercials for the Hungarian Tourism Agency, to be aired next Spring in
the U.S. and the UK, and hosted a charity ball to benefit the
Budapest Pikler Institute, an organization for orphaned and
underprivileged children, with which Mr. Curtis' daughter Alexandra is
closely associated. Mr. Curtis, who is proud of his Hungarian heritage,
agreed to help promote Hungary at the suggestion of Ambassador Simonyi,
his good friend.
For the actor, his trip to
Hungary was also an occasion to look for long-forgotten relatives and
reconnect with his family's Hungarian Jewish past. Apart from meeting Prime
Minister Péter Medgyessy and Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky, Mr. Curtis
also found time to visit the Budapest Dohány Street Synagogue and meet with representatives of the local
Jewish community.
