Great Hungarian Communities in the USA: Florida

We are continuing our series about Hungarian communities in the United States. This time we shine a light on Florida, which also has a great number of Hungarians living mostly in Miami and its vicinity. There are a few organizations and groups that help the community stay together, to grow, to help each other, to teach and to learn.

One of the things most Hungarian communities abroad seem to have in common is some form of language school for children. The Sunday School of Miami teaches reading, writing, religion and folk traditions in a playful manner. The school is free, the teachers are all volunteers. They also do arts and craft, as well as music and singing.

But is not only the children who need a place where they can exercise their language skills. The Kossuth Klub was formed in 1952, and it organizes cultural outings to nurture our traditions, the language, our literature. It is a way for the local Hungarian community to stay connected. Membership fees are $30 per year.

Another place to connect with fellow Hungarians is the church. Their webpage states that around 50,000 Hungarians are living in Miami and the neighbouring towns. The First Hungarian United Church of Christ of Miami Inc. was founded in the late 1940s, and it attends to the needs of the Hungarian Christians of South Florida.  The community is of mixed Reformed, Catholic and various other Protestant members, mostly of Hungarian origin.

They hold interdenominational worship services every Sunday at 11 am. The services are mostly in Hungarian and sometimes in English, or even in Spanish as the need arises.  The church organizes different activities that are centred around Hungarian cooking, religious and cultural education, and youth activities.

Communities outside of Miami

There are several other Hungarian communities in Florida, around bigger cities. There is an American-Hungarian Club of the Palm Beach area since 1963. They have regular weekly activities, play card games, have regular lunches and sometimes even dinner dance parties.

In central Florida, there is a religious community around Daytona Beach, held together by Reverend Emese Asztalos. You can read her story about how she got there and how she is helping the local community at news-journalonline.com.

• Speaking of Florida: it had a massive property boom recently and state taxes are among the lowest. Consider reading the TRUiC guide when you want LLC incorporation in Florida.

There are also Hungarian festivals in Florida. The Sarasota Hungarian festival started in 2007; this year would be their 12^th festival. Their founder is the Global Friendship Foundation. It is a two-day event, contrary to other Hungarian cultural festivals in the US that generally only last one day. They focus on culture and strengthening the interpersonal and cultural ties between the US and Hungary. Their attendance is around 4,000 people every year, and they usually invite several musicians to perform at the festival, some of them come all the way from Hungary. Last year they invited Feró Nagy, Miki Fenyő, Kefir and Animal Cannibals, just to mention a few. We cannot wait to find out what they are planning for this year.

If you are interested in other Hungarian groups in the USA, check out our earlier posts:

Hungarian communities in Colorado

Hungarian communities in Boston

Hungarian communities in Cleveland

Hungarian festival in California

Hungarian festival in New Brunswick

Source: Daily News Hungary