Marc Roscoe Loustau

This month, Hanna Szenes, a Hungarian Jewish paratrooper who fought behind Nazi lines, finally got a Times obituary; but the article has little about Hungary's Jewish community today. What do Hungarian Jews think about a famous native daughter?

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/hanna-szen...

Orbán bypassing EU diplomacy with new Moscow trip to see Putin Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is again bypassing EU diplomacy on Ukraine by going for another meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to media reports.

Hungary's PM jets off to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin, today November 28. Why? @euobserver.com quoted my analysis in today's issue.

euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

Trump ambassador pick for #Hungary has close ties to Israeli extremists. Nominee Benjamin Landa says far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, once convicted of supporting terrorist groups, should be Prime Minister. What does Hungary's Jewish community think?

balkaninsight.com/2025/11/26/t...

Stay or go? Intellectuals in 1930s Germany faced this question. Czech dissidents faced it from behind the Iron Curtain. Now it’s the US’s turn. What is life in exile like today? See the latest edition of "At the Edges, with Marc Loustau."

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/wanna-get-...

In the face of the pandemic of angst and anxiety, is there an example of an individual’s search for consolation that might inspire and guide us today?

“The search for what heals us,” in today’s edition of the “At the Edges” newsletter on Substack.

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/the-search...

#adorno didn't like #mahler's 8th: "The tone of strained gaiety no more actualizes joy than the word gaudeamus; the thematic fulfillments announced too eagerly by the gestures of fulfilling do not materialize.”

Add a self-affirmation T-shirt slogan instead of gaudeamus, it's a powerful critique.

YouTube video by The Christian Century The religious significance of Chicago ICE protests

Writer Tom Montgomery Fate chats with Jon about the peaceful protests at the ICE facility in Broadview, IL, where several faith leaders were recently arrested.

youtu.be/bKGNh_WmvGY

Pastors in exile Clergy who have fled Russian-occupied Ukraine are finding new ways to provide pastoral care for parishioners who are still...

“The occupation is best understood as Christians punishing Christians who refuse to say the Russian invasion is divinely sanctioned.”

– @attheedges.bsky.social

www.christiancentury.org/features/pas...

Pastors in exile Clergy who have fled Russian-occupied Ukraine are finding new ways to provide pastoral care for parishioners who are still...

Link to the article: www.christiancentury.org/features/pas...

Also on my Substack newsletter: marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/where-moth...

My article about Ukrainian pastors who fled Russian-occupied territory and the apps they use.

Not only do these ministers do pastoral care with people still behind the front line, they also taught me about resisting #authoritarianism. New in the @christiancentury.bsky.social: "Pastors in exile."

Listening to Mahler 9, the first movement. This feels accurate: "But Mahler's movements, in their entirety, are streams on which is borne whatever is caught in them, yet without its particularity being entirely absorbed." Theodor Adorno, Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy.

"Here we go again..." Ukrainian Catholics react to Pope Leo's interview with Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse. It's for the best, they say, that Ukrainian media mostly ignored the interview. In "At the Edges, with Marc Loustau" on Substack.

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/do-you-kno...

I am a fellow at Central European University’s Institute for Advanced Study. The IAS coordinated my media appearances about the Trump-Putin Budapest summit. Now they’ve put the coverage my comments received on one site:

ias.ceu.edu/article/2025...

It’s a pleasure to be at @iasceu.bsky.social!

My friend and former Ukrainian teacher Maria Kosiychuk is organizing this exciting program. It'll be fun as well as educational. For anyone even just a little bit curious about Ukrainian, I highly recommend!

www.instagram.com/soft.sign.ua/

VIDEO Ključ za zaustavljanje Putina na Balkanu: Marc Loustau, pridruženi saradnik za Antropologiju i Religijske studije na CEU u Budimpešti, bez ustručavanja govori o spornim geopolitičkim vezama koje se plet

My commentary about the not-so-summit in regional news: Bosnian TV and a Slovak newspaper, Denník Sme.

Trump said a meeting is a waste of time. The only waste of time is Trump, and any effort by Europe to deal with him as a reliable ally.

n1info.ba/svijet/video...

svet.sme.sk/c/23558945/v...

Trump-Putin Budapest summit would have posed threat to international rule of law and Ukraine’s relations with Hungary The now-cancelled Budapest summit would have been, above all, a boon for Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

The Budapest summit is off. Trump's reaction: He says a meeting is a "waste of time."

The only waste of time is Trump himself, and Europe's attempt to deal with him as a conventional, reliable ally.

My commentary in The Conversation UK. theconversation.com/trump-putin-...

I was on TV last night commenting about the Trump-Putin Budapest Summit and why the EU needs to show some backbone in response.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fzz...

I predicted the Trump-Putin Budapest summit But it's what I can't predict that scares me

The Trump-Putin summit in Budapest is a threat to European unity. It could also seriously damage Hungary-Ukraine relations.

But Viktor Orbán's real challenge will be finding a place for these strongmen to have a good time.

“At the Edges, with Marc Loustau.”

open.substack.com/pub/marcrosc...

Hungary’s ICC Exit Could Make Budapest a More Welcoming Place for Russians After Hungary’s exit from the ICC, Europe’s political leaders should ensure that Russia does not take advantage of this move to destabilise the rules-based international order.

New York Times says President Trump will meet with Putin in **Budapest** to discuss Ukraine.

It's really strange to make a prediction and actually be right, but here we are. "Hungary’s ICC Exit Could Make Budapest a More Welcoming Place for Russians." By Marc Loustau, Balkan Insight, 4/30/2025.

Alexandr Navalny v. Hungary's Russian Embassy Someone destroyed Budapest's memorial to the slain dissident

For more than a year, a memorial to Russian dissident Alexei Navalny sat across the street from the Russian embassy in Budapest. Last week, vandals tore it down. Who did it? More importantly, who came together to put it back again?

open.substack.com/pub/marcrosc...

Ukrainian pastors, who fled cities now occupied by Russia, still keep in touch with church members who stayed behind. But why, when Russian police have threatened to arrest worshippers? From “At the Edges”: “Where Mother Mary is on the terror list.”

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/where-moth...

Hungarians the Latest in Region to Have a New Cross to Bear The new cross installed on Budapest’s Liberty Statue is just the latest of several such instances of governments or organisations in the region erecting Christian symbols in prominent and sometimes se...

When does public Christianity become controversial? The latest addition to #Budapest's skyline is a test case.

My article in Balkan Insight: balkaninsight.com/2025/09/17/h...

This New York Times article about Charlie Kirk is bad. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/u...

“At the Edges” newsletter today: "Political violence isn't uniquely American." Let's look outside our borders to understand what’s at stake in political violence.

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/political-...

"But to look at it from another angle - one can’t forget everything, however great one’s wish to do so; the plague was bound to leave traces, anyhow, in people’s hearts."

A. Camus, The Plague, p. 227

Why does a self-reflexive, anti-imperial leftist sign up for a foreign war that, if we’re completely honest, he doesn’t really understand? The author George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984) posed this question to himself in 1938. I ask myself the same question today.

open.substack.com/pub/marcrosc...

I am grateful for all the paying subscribers to “At the Edges, with Marc Loustau.”

In talks with Putin, Trump can’t ignore nuclear safety and plight of displaced Ukrainians Freedom of movement for displaced Ukrainians should be part of any negotiations to secure a peace that is at least proximally just and humane.

What might a humane peace look like in Ukraine? My article today in America Magazine: "In talks with Putin, Trump can’t ignore nuclear safety and plight of displaced Ukrainians."

www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2...

Neither. Instability is the right-wing elite's way of saying, "Don't threaten our interests!" And unmet expectations are just routine politics. I worry that people in the US will relax in the expectation they'll simply "vote out the bums" in the next election. The current threat is much greater.

On the side of life Hungarian sociologist Dr. Ráchel Surányi publishes her protest against the suffering in Gaza

"I am on the side of life." Hungarian Jewish sociologist Ráchel Surányi speaks out against the famine in Gaza. Our interview is on "At the Edges, with Marc Loustau" on Substack.

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com/p/on-the-sid...

Orbán’s annual summer speech, usually full of controversial content, was surprisingly boring. Every listless appearance makes Hungary’s opposition stronger in next year’s elections. But I actually harbor a worry about what may happen if the opposition wins.

marcroscoeloustau.substack.com