Kossuth Foundation Language Program Announcement and Guidelines – Fall 2020 Semester

Program Overview – The Kossuth Foundation language program offers stimulating online evening or weekend classes at all levels of study. New and returning students are welcome. If you are uncertain about which class may be right for you, please contact us. All classes are small and taught by experienced, native Hungarian teachers – many of whom have taught with us or at other locations for many years. We strive to make the classes educational, culturally rewarding and fun. Our classes are normally 12 weeks during the fall and spring semesters with the potential for a shorter session in the summer. This fall, classes will begin the week of September 14 and end before the Christmas holidays. Click here to read more about our language program. 

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Kossuth Foundation Elects Two New Board Members

At the May 15 meeting of the Kossuth Foundation board of directors, the board approved changes to the bylaws that would allow a third non-US citizen to be added to the board.  Once that change was approved, the board approved adding Dr. Sandor Vegh and Mr. Stefan Fedor, to our leadership team as directors.  Mr. Vegh is employed at the World Bank and has been active in the Hungarian community in DC for many years including as the founder and head of the Hungarian American Federation. He has a strong history with the Kossuth House having written a graduate term paper on the building as a cultural landscape.  He organized many lectures held in the building and also organized the Hungarian language program taught there in the past.  Mr. Fedor is a former senior executive at Cisco Systems, Inc. and is also extremely active in the Hungarian American community, having served in leadership positions at the American Hungarian Federation, the Hungarian American Coalition, and the American Hungarian Heritage House.

Summary of the Quadrennial Meeting of the Foundation

On March 14, 2020, the Foundation held its second quadrennial meeting of the membership this time at the Kossuth House in Washington, DC.  The meeting had been originally scheduled for earlier but was postponed due to the heavy workload related to building repairs and also the spread of the Corona virus.  Attendance was limited because of the pandemic and a quorum had to be established under a special change to the bylaws adopted by the board specifically to address the concern related to establishing a quorum in the middle of pandemic.  The bylaws changes specifically allowed the quorum to be established using members present or participating remotely.  Chairman Gabe Rozsa reported on the status of building occupancy and repair and our Treasurer, Mr. Atilla Kocsis, reported on the overall financial health of the Foundation, including plans to invest the proceeds of sale of the building to the Hungarian government. 

 The membership also voted on membership on the board of directors.  Mr. George Dozsa announced his retirement from the board after many years of service to the Hungarian American community around the country.  He previously served as Vice Chairman of the Foundation and as Chairman of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of American, the predecessor organization to our Foundation.  A slate of the other remaining members of the board, including Mr. Gabor Rozsa, Mr. Max Teleki, Mr. Atilla Kocsis, Mr. Zsolt Szekeres, and Ms. Emese Latkoczy was placed in nomination, along with four new members, Ms. Judit Haala Subert, Ms. Judit Slezak, Mr. Adam Korenyi-Both and Dr. Sandor Vegh. However, under our bylaws only two Board members may be non-US citizens and there were three candidates who were not US citizens (Zsolt Szekeres, Judit Haala Subert and Sandor Vegh).  Motion was made to elect all US Citizens and the two most active non-US citizens (Mr. Szekeres and Ms. Subert) and to explore a change in the bylaws to allow a third non-US citizen to be on the board.  The motion carried unanimously.  [Note subsequently, Mr. Korenyi-Both informed the board that he was unable to accept a potion on the board due to employment concerns.]  The two new members joining the board were Ms. Judit Slezak and Ms. Judit Haala Subert.  Ms. Slezak lives in the DC area and is a managing director for marketing and integrated services at ASCD, a nonprofit association providing professional services to educators around the country.Ms. Subert also joined the board.  She has been very active in the local DC Hungarian American community and served as one of our language instructors, as well as our Language Program Coordinator, in charge of the entire language program. 

2020 Quadrennial Meeting

2020 Quadrennial Meeting - Coronavirus Update

Member Information for the Second Quadrennial Meeting
Kossuth House – March 14, 2020 9:30 a.m.

Our bylaws require that we hold a membership meeting every four years or, if authorized by the Board of Directors, not later than the end of the first quarter of the fifth year following the last quadrennial meeting. Our second quadrennial meeting will take place on March 14, at the Kossuth House (2001 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036 at 9:30 a.m. All charter and regular members in good standing can participate. Charter members are individuals who had a life insurance policy in effect issued by the former Hungarian Reformed Federation of America on December 31, 2011. Regular members are individuals who contribute $50.00 or more in the year in which the Quadrennial meeting is to take place or, if the meeting is delayed to the following year, in the first quarter of the following year (for this meeting, the donation must have been between January 1, 2019 and March 14, 2020.
Members are entitled to vote on any changes to the Articles of Incorporation (no changes are proposed) and to elect individuals to serve on the Board of Directors for the succeeding four years. The bylaws call for a board of eleven members. Members will vote either in person or by proxy ballot for no more than eleven members of the board. At present, we have six directors and several additional candidates have expressed interest in joining the board. Information on current or prospective member of the board are included on the ballot which can be found here.

Kossuth Foundation
Membership Meeting Ballot and Proxy

March 14, 2020

Instructions: From the list of candidates on this and the next page, please vote for not more than eleven (11) to serve as Directors for four-year terms on the proxy ballot you will find on this website (here). In addition, you have the option to write in the candidate of your choice in the space provided below. Candidates in italics are current members of the Board. Please prints, fill out, and mail to the Kossuth Foundation, 2001 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036 (postmarked no later than March 6) or hand delivered to the Foundation leadership or emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (no later than midnight on March 13, 2020.

Proxy: Check here ___ to give your proxy to (a) any one of the current Directors you specify here __________ _________________ or, if no name is indicated or legible, (b) to the Chairman of the Board. The individual who has your proxy, if present at the meeting, will cast your vote for the Directors’ election and for any other business brought before the membership. Any vote you cast for Directors takes precedence; the proxy will only be used to vote on your behalf for Board seats if you vote for fewer than 11 Directors.

The candidates are listed in alphabetical order by family name.

___ Mr. George Dózsa – Mr. Dózsa is a native Hungarian and former Director and Chairman of the Board of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. He has served as a member of the Kossuth Foundation Board of Directors, serving as Vice Chair from 2011 to 2013. He resides in New Brunswick, New Jersey where he is active in the local Hungarian Reformed Church.

___ Mr. Atilla Kocsis – Mr. Kocsis was born in Newark, NJ. He worked on Hungarian American policy at the US Chamber of Commerce in the early nineties before going on to found several Internet companies. In the 2000's he branched out into Real Estate investment. Currently he is an entrepreneur and investor funding and owning several start ups. Mr. Kocsis started working for and assisting the Kossuth House in the mid-nineties assisting HRFA with its IT and web needs. He also served the American Hungarian Federation from 2004 to 2019 as a Board member and Treasurer. Mr. Kocsis also attended Hungarian Scout camp and became a scout leader.

___ Mr. Ádám Korenyi-Both – Mr. Korenyi-Both was born in Buffalo N.Y., and was raised in a Hungarian speaking home. He attended a semester at Zrínyi Miklós National Defense University, Budapest, while majoring International Relations at the University of Dayton, with a special focus on Central Europe. After serving abroad in the US Army, he received a Masters Degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and served as one of the very few native Hungarian speaking military officers for the Department of Defense. He worked at various U.S Embassies including Budapest, Warsaw, and Moscow for short temporary duty over six years. His current Reserve military assignment is a Historian for the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. He also works as a civilian for Booz Allen Hamilton in the Cybersecurity industry. He is a certified Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), and proud father of two living in Alexandria VA.

___ Ms. Emese Latkóczy – Ms. Latkóczy was born in Toronto and immigrated to New York with her family in 1973. A filmmaker by training, she started as a volunteer with the Committee for Human Rights in Rumania in 1978 and has been a member of the board of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation since 1984. A scout, fluent in Hungarian, she lived in Hungary for 6 years. Ms. Latkóczy joined the Kossuth Foundation board in 2013, has served as secretary of the American Hungarian Library and Historical Society and managed the ReConnect Hungary Birthright Program from 2012-2018.

___ Mr. Gábor Rózsa – Mr. Rózsa was born in Győr, Hungary and immigrated to the US in 1956 at the age of seven. He is a lawyer and lobbyist by profession, having worked in Washington for 40 years for the U.S. Army, two congressional committees, and two prominent government affairs firms. He is currently a Managing Director of the Prime Policy Group in Washington, D.C. He has been active in Kossuth Foundation matters since 2012, joined the Board in 2013, and elected Chairman of the Board in November 2013. He resides in Fairfax, Virginia.

___ Judit Slezak – Ms. Slezak is an accomplished senior business and marketing executive with more than 15 years of senior management experience. Previously oversaw marketing and business development across several for- profit/corporate and nonprofit industries, gaining a unique breadth of experiences and perspectives. She is currently working as the Managing Director of Marketing, Membership and Integrated Services for ASCD. Ms. Slezak has an undergraduate degree in German and Russian studies from Juhász Gyula College in Hungary and an MBA from Virginia Tech.

___ Judit Subert – Ms. Subert was born in Oroszlány, Hungary and moved to the US. with her family in 2013. She worked as a teacher in a Catholic School in Budapest, ran an exchange program with many families in Manchester, UK. Founded a charity foundation, "Sorsfordul ó" in Budapest. Currently she is working for Lifematters Company and owns two small businesses. J’s Way, a personal advisory and BrickPower LLC, promoting STEM and junior engineering projects. Judit joined the Kossuth Foundation as a teacher in 2017. Since 2018 she has been coordinating the Language Program, started and organized a Lecture Series, art shows and a musical group to serve and strengthen the Hungarian community in the DC, MD, Northern VA area. Judit is a legal permanent resident, living in Fairfax, VA.

___ Mr. Zsolt Szekeres – Mr. Szekeres was born in Germany, worked as an international civil servant for the United Nations in Washington, DC. He is a founding member of the Hungarian American Coalition (HAC) where he served both as Board member and President, and is the organization’s Treasurer since 1991. Currently he is President of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF), working on behalf of Hungarian minorities for several decades. Fluent in Hungarian, Spanish, and English, Mr. Szekeres and his brothers founded Information for Investment Decisions (IID), in the early 70’s, with locations in both D.C. and Budapest helping DC based organizations such as the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, Committee for Danubian Research and other non-governmental organizations in Hungary and in the United States. He is a member of the Board of the Carpathian Foundation based in Eger, Hungary and Pro Ruris Egyesület, Mezőmadaras, Romania.

___ Mr. Maximillian Teleki – Mr. Teleki was born in Northern California, and is a senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in both private and non profit sectors. Mr. Teleki’s experience includes telecommunications, marketing, business development and government affairs. He has also represented engineering and technology companies in Washington, D.C. Mr. Teleki is Vice Chairman of the Board of Kossuth Foundation, and President Emeritus of the Hungarian American Coalition, a nationwide organization engaging business, political and cultural leaders, after serving as President and Chief Executive from 2004 to 2016. He joined the Coalition in 1994, and has served as a Board Member since 2000. In 2011, Mr. Teleki helped establish the Tom Lantos Institute, headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, and serves on their Board in the Executive Committee. The institute is a research and advocacy institution with a focus on human and minority rights in Central-Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

___Mr. Dr. Sándor Végh – Born in Debrecen, Hungary, Mr. Végh came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1997 for his PhD studies. He is active in the local Hungarian community. Between 1998 and 2012, he managed the Hungarian activities in the Kossuth House, including cultural events, exhibitions, film clubs, library, language classes, and networking events, endorsed by the HRFA. Since 2003, he has lead the HungarianAmerica

Foundation, a small non-profit organization focusing on (young) professionals and Hungarian relations. He resides in Washington D.C.

___ Write-in Candidates – You may write in additional candidates but can only have a total of eleven board members

Preference for Active versus Inactive Charter Membership

Please mark your current status. I am a …
□ General Member. General members are those individuals who have contributed $50,00 or more during 2019 or 2020.
□ Charter Member. Charter members were policy holders of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America life insurance company as of December 31, 2011.

Charter members, please indicate your preference. I prefer to be an …
□ Inactive Member: I do not wish to be notified in writing (by US Postal Service) of future membership meetings.

□ Active Member: I wish to be notified in writing (by US Postal Service) of future membership meetings.
Active Members: Must provide your current contact information (above).