On New Year’s I saw the most amazing thing. I started my European adventure by spending a few days in Ukraine. At the Moishe House in Kiev I saw three energetic girls throw a party for about twenty of their friends. They danced to American and Israeli music, and almost all knew “Turkish Kiss.” Cell phone tones rang to Israeli songs, and almost everyone at some point wanted to talk to me about their Jewish identity.
After two days of touring Kiev I flew to Budapest to meet the rest of the Social Action Exchange. My flight arrived late, so after arriving at the hostel I walked one block to one of two kosher restaurants in the entire county, and was thrilled to see all of my friends as we started our exciting journey.
The next day our Israeli friends arrived and we went to the equivalent of the JCC to meet our Hungarian counter parts and learn about Hungarian Jewish history. For Shabbat I went to two kabbalat Shabbat services! The first was a Hungarian Neolog service. This service featured the traditional Orthodox matbea service, with musical instruments, and with separate seating for men and women.
Afterwards I went with the rest of the SAE group to Moishe House Budapest for a Masorti/Conservative service before dinner. It reminded me of Shabbat services at Camp Ramah, complete with the required tone-deafness. And the next morning I…slept in. That’s right, I didn’t go to shul. It was incredible, simply incredible.
We spent the afternoon doing ice-breakers, doing text study and learning about each other.
On Sunday, we took a historic tour of the Jewish sections of Budapest. I didn’t realize that Budapest had such a rich Jewish history, and was glad that I could see such a beautiful part of the city. That night we watched the movie Salach Shabati, a classic Israeli film about new immigrants in Israel. After the movie we had a discussion about the role of Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews in Israel.
Today we had a full day of touring and learning. We visited Haver, an organization working with Jews and Gyspsies for social Justice. On one of the walls I saw a poster with the label “Jewish peopleheood” on the bottom, and realized that I knew three people in the poster. Small world.
Now I’m sitting in the hostel and everyone is talking about a good age to get married. Oy vey.
After two days of touring Kiev I flew to Budapest to meet the rest of the Social Action Exchange. My flight arrived late, so after arriving at the hostel I walked one block to one of two kosher restaurants in the entire county, and was thrilled to see all of my friends as we started our exciting journey.
The next day our Israeli friends arrived and we went to the equivalent of the JCC to meet our Hungarian counter parts and learn about Hungarian Jewish history. For Shabbat I went to two kabbalat Shabbat services! The first was a Hungarian Neolog service. This service featured the traditional Orthodox matbea service, with musical instruments, and with separate seating for men and women.
Afterwards I went with the rest of the SAE group to Moishe House Budapest for a Masorti/Conservative service before dinner. It reminded me of Shabbat services at Camp Ramah, complete with the required tone-deafness. And the next morning I…slept in. That’s right, I didn’t go to shul. It was incredible, simply incredible.
We spent the afternoon doing ice-breakers, doing text study and learning about each other.
On Sunday, we took a historic tour of the Jewish sections of Budapest. I didn’t realize that Budapest had such a rich Jewish history, and was glad that I could see such a beautiful part of the city. That night we watched the movie Salach Shabati, a classic Israeli film about new immigrants in Israel. After the movie we had a discussion about the role of Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews in Israel.
Today we had a full day of touring and learning. We visited Haver, an organization working with Jews and Gyspsies for social Justice. On one of the walls I saw a poster with the label “Jewish peopleheood” on the bottom, and realized that I knew three people in the poster. Small world.
Now I’m sitting in the hostel and everyone is talking about a good age to get married. Oy vey.
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