While the Orbán government has been spectacularly building its diplomatic relations with Israel in recent years, half a year before the 2026 elections, it has almost unnoticed established a new, suggestive institution in the heart of Jerusalem. The Hungarian Academy of Jerusalem (HAJJ) operates in one of the most expensive neighborhoods of the city, the Talbiyeh neighborhood, but there are more question marks surrounding the institution's operation than concrete facts.
Diplomatic flagship or government project?
The academy bills itself as the „flagship” of Hungarian cultural diplomacy, but in the Israeli press – for example, The Times of Israel It is also referred to as an „embassy branch,” following his report. This ambiguity may explain why the institution’s name is not listed in any Israeli nonprofit or business registry.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the initiative was not merely cultural, but clearly a foreign policy and ideological project, the aim of which was to be ceremonially presented by Viktor Orbán during his first trip abroad after his election victory.
The invisible budget
Data related to the operation of the academy is completely missing from the public:
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Financing: No budget appropriations, grant contracts, or management reports were found in the ministries' public documents.
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Expenditures: Its annual budget is estimated to have exceeded the entire budget of the Hungarian embassy in Tel Aviv.
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Transparency: Neither the institution's founding document nor the government resolution establishing it can be found, and no response has been received from the authorities to public interest data requests regarding the institution.
The narrative of the „return”
The director of the institution is the archaeologist Győző Vörös, appointed until 2030 and credited with the controversial discovery of a pharaonic tomb in the late 1990s. Vörös presents the institution as part of historical continuity: he traces the Hungarian presence back to the time of Saint Stephen and the Crusades.
However, despite the grandiose rhetoric and the mention of a „new intellectual frontier,” the institution’s website is practically empty, with outdated entries, and according to the program calendar, not a single event has been held there since its opening. For now, HAJJ looks like a government investment that follows diplomatic logic and has a cultural policy mission, but remains hidden from public opinion.
Source: Solti Hanna-atlaszo.hu
