The Cleveland Hungarian Heritage Society, the recipient of the 2006 Ohio Heritage Fellowship in Community Leadership, was established in 1985 to document, preserve and disseminate Hungarian culture in the Cleveland area. The non-profit corporation is chartered to serve "as a repository for Hungarian historical, cultural and artistic items." The CHHS opened its first museum at St. Elizabeth Church in Cleveland in 1986. The Society opened subsequent museums in Richmond Heights and at the Euclid Square Mall and has also organized exhibits at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Playhouse, the Beck Center and John Carroll University.

In addition to its collection and archival activities, the CHHS publishes a quarterly newsletter (The Review: The Second One Hundred Years), has produced a video on needlework (Flowers in the Snow) and, in its role as community advocate, vigorously protested the abrupt removal of all ethnic programming on Cleveland’s public radio station WCPN, forcing the station to return many of the programs to the airwaves. The Cleveland Hungarian Heritage Society, under the direction of such community-minded individuals as Executive Director Otto Friedrich, stands today as a successful model for community organizations serving the cultural needs of the vast immigrant population of the U.S.