It has been very intense since we arrived here on Sunday, and only now, I can have the emotional “space” to reflect on what I have seen, heard, observed and came to understand.
The imagery I had in mind of Eastern European Jewry was of Jews yearning to return to Zion. I have learned to believe that it is not the case, at least here in Budapest. From my conversations with local residents I get a very sad picture of people struggling to make ends meet, provide for their family and have very little Jewish literacy. The children do not have basic knowledge about the history of the Jewish people, the identity of famous Jews in the Bible like the fathers and mothers, Jacob and his sons, Joseph in Egypt, and on and on. I came to realize that it is not “politically correct” to ask the students if they are Jewish. Many of them will tell you that they do not know if they are, and they need to check with their parents. When I was teaching a group of 11th graders the Hatikva, – they had no idea what it meant or when you sing it. They did not know that it is the Israeli Anthem. The word Mizrach (east) meant nothing. And then it became clear to me: There is NO ISRAELI FLAG at the school, no Jewish symbols, no pictures of Jewish people or Israel. When I tried to explain the olive branch around the Menorah, I had to pose, go back to tell the story about Noah and the flood and it felt like I was telling them a fairytale.
When I was teaching a unit about food in another 11th grade class, and I asked them what to we eat on Rosh Hashana, some of them knew that we eat apple and honey. What other foods and why? That remained a question. When we came to Chanukah they remembered that we eat something in oil but did not know why. I was planning to continue with the other holidays, but it was very painful to see their lack of knowledge.
I enjoyed watching a first grade class learning with a spark in their eyes the Hebrew Alphabet, and speak and understand basic words in Hebrew. Seeing them so excited to learn Hebrew and please their teacher led me to ask the teacher: “What happened when they come to high school and their level of Hebrew is SO low?” She explained that there are several reasons for that. First, Hebrew becomes an elective, and most students elect to choose others and not Hebrew. Second, students learn Hebrew only two or three times a week for a 45 minute lesson. Third, their textbook is not conducive for learning Hebrew in the diaspora. It is the textbook used at Ulpan classes in Israel for University students who are coming to Israel to study at the university. She shared with me their dilemma whether to stay with this textbook or change it to another program, whose name I’d rather not mention here. I told her to examine it carefully first, as it has a lot of Biblical Hebrew in it. Once she heard that word – she said – “Oh, no- that would not work here at all!”
I am happy to report that in my private meeting with my host teacher I was able to recommend to her various teaching materials, that would help make teaching and learning the Hebrew Language a more meaningful and fun process. I plan to include her in my Hebrew department’s google classroom page, where we upload lesson plans, useful links, interesting and useful videos and ideas we come up with.
I enjoyed giving the presentation today at the CEU on The Revival of The Hebrew Language. When I was talking it felt like I was telling a fascinating story to a close friend and sharing my excitement and my love for the language. I know that not all the students in the audience were Jewish, so it was important for me to share with them that also Jesus from Nazareth, and Maria Magdalene spoke the Hebrew Language.
Ehud Banai wrote and sings the beautiful song: Speak up the Language of the HebrewMan. Click here to read the words. Click here to listen to the song.
Today one very important question I have had on my mind, got answered. When Hertzel spoke to the Jews about going to live in the country of their own, so many of them objected. Now I realize that at the time he was coming with all of these great ideas, the Jews in Budapest were having “a golden age”. They built a magnificent, beautiful and large enough to hold 10,000 people who would attend it. They had no reason at that time to want to leave, on the contrary – it was time to expand and to flourish. I never knew that Hertzel was born in Hungary and his house was in fact not far from that second largest synagogue in the world. Somehow times lead us to believe he was from Vienna. After all, he said: “Here in Basel I established the Jewish State”.
Our conversation with the director of The Jewish Community helped me understand the impact of communism on the Jewish people in Budapest. Things begin to be clearer in my mind. Just like the slaves in Egypt had to spend 40 years in the desert to appreciate being free at last, maybe it takes time for the Jews here to heal their wounds and get back on their feet Jewishly speaking. But they need help! They need a Moses, and maybe we are the little Moseses who are lending a hand to help them get up. We need to recruit more and more “mosses” for this mission in order for it to succeed.
