Washington, DC — Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary on January 24, 2017. The award, presented in Washington D.C. by Ambassador Réka Szemerkényi on behalf of Dr. János Áder, President of Hungary, recognizes Ms. Kaptur’s years of service on behalf of her constituents in Ohio, which has the second largest concentration of citizens of Hungarian descent in the U.S.
Ambassador Réka Szemerkényi, Coalition President Emeritus Max Teleki and Representative Marcy Kaptur
The award ceremony was preceded by a piano concert by Christopher Schmitt, a student at the Julliard School, followed by a seated dinner honoring Representative Kaptur.
Several Hungarian-American leaders were present, including Maximilian Teleki, President Emeritus of the Hungarian American Coalition; Coalition Vice President Stefan Fedor and Mrs. Erika Fedor; and former Coalition President Péter Újvagi with his daughter Kristina Roder, a former Coalition intern.
Representative Kaptur, who represents Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District, is currently serving her sixteenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the senior-most woman in the House and the longest-serving woman from Ohio in history.
Representative Kaptur is a proud Polish-American whose ancestors came from an area that is now Ukraine. She currently serves on the Congressional Executive Commission on China and co-chairs both the Ukraine Caucus and the Congressional Hungarian Caucus, where she serves along with Representative Dennis Ross. She was an unwavering supporter of the Partnership for Peace and NATO enlargement. She also has been a staunch critic of Russian aggression in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular Ukraine.
