NEWS

On Sunday, October 16th, members of the FOS Board and others from the Slovak American community attended the U.S. premiere screening of the documentary film, The Killing of a  Journalist.  The documentary was a part of DOUBLE EXPOSURE, the United States’ first and only film festival dedicated to the intersection between investigative reporting and visual storytelling. It […]

Friends of Slovakia partnered with the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Slovak Embassy in Washington, D.C. to cosponsor the only Washington-area performance of the Slovak Theater Ensemble Túlavé divadlo (“Wandering Theater”) during its recent U.S. tour. The performance of Hana and Matúš – Literature Lessons took place on October 13, 2022, at the […]

On October 2, 2022, FOS held a webinar on Jozef Tiso’s Leadership of the Slovak State During World War II and the “Jewish Question.” The featured speaker was Madeline Vadkerty, program coordinator at the Holocaust Documentation Center in Bratislava.  J. Luke Ryder, historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, moderated the webinar.  Before moving to Bratislava, […]

Written by Dr. Elizabeth Guran, FOS Board Member The Ukraine War and its impact on democratic societies was the topic of the final Student Summit sponsored by Friends of Slovakia and its partners at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Over 60 students from Matej Bel University, […]

Friends of Slovakia hosted a webinar featuring Jan Orlovsky, Director of the Office of Migration at the Slovak Ministry of Interior, who discussed Slovakia’s response to the humanitarian crisis that resulted from the February 2022 full-scale war in Ukraine. In addition to the government response, there has been a tremendous outpouring of support from nongovernmental […]

The Friends of Slovakia (FOS) International Student Summits are off and running! Two successful virtual summits were held in 2021 and a third summit will occur in April 2022. All three events address the theme, “Challenges of Democracy.” The students, faculty, and expert guest speakers from past summits have all participated virtually due to covid-19 restrictions and will continue to do so for the third Student Summit.

This report was prepared by Dr. Elizabeth Guran, chair of the FOS Committee on Academic Exchanges. The Friends of Slovakia (FOS) International Student Summits are off and running! Two successful virtual summits were held in 2021 and a third summit will occur in April 2022. All three events address the theme, “Challenges of Democracy.” The […]

Current and former directors of Friends of Slovakia, along with spouses and special guests, celebrated the 20th anniversary of FOS on November 17, 2021, at a dinner at the Slovak Embassy in Washington, D.C. hosted by Ambassador Radovan Javorčík. Earlier in the day, Beata Balogová, editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily SME, delivered the 2021 Czech […]

The German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group hosted a virtual discussion with Eduard Heger, Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic to discuss Slovakia’s democracy agenda and how his government intends to further its commitments to restore trust in democratic institutions and build deeper transatlantic cooperation and coordination to […]

The 2019 election of Zuzana Čaputová as the first female president of the Slovak Republic brought increased visibility to the country, especially in the realm of foreign policy. While there is still room for greater participation, a growing number of women in Slovakia now occupy senior positions in influencing, planning, and conducting Slovakia’s foreign relations. […]