Source: Jerusalem Post
The Jewish Agency has laid the cornerstone for a new Israel Cultural Center in Budapest that could serve as a testing-ground for similar Israel-Diaspora centers worldwide. Modeled on other nations' foreign cultural services, the center will bring under one roof a wide range of activities connected to Israel, and will expose visitors to a many fields of Israeli culture.
The Budapest center will serve dual functions: as a bridge between Israel and nearby Jewish communities, and a source for information about Israel for the general population.
For the general audience, it will host changing exhibits of Israeli modern art, theater productions, concerts and cinema. It will offer public lectures and seminars on social issues in Israel, and will work to connect between the Hungarian arts and culture world to their counterparts in Israel.
But it will also function as a meeting place for members of Jewish communities in Budapest and nearby cities, including Belgrade, Vienna and Bratislava. More than 100,000 Jews are thought to live within 200 kilometers of the center. The center will run programs for learning Hebrew, Israeli music and poetry and Israeli cooking as well as providing exposure to other aspects of popular Israeli culture.