The old expression goes, you can’t go home again. Maybe, but I can tell you that today when we returned to the Scheiber Sandor Gimnazium for our first day of teaching this this year it felt incredibly comfortable. This first day is so different than our first day last year because we came in as old friends to the school and to the teachers and students. All the that we worried about last year, what would the kids be like, what is the schedule like, what do the rooms and facilities look like, and most importantly, would the kids laugh at my jokes were not issues this year. (And for the record the students are just as likely or unlikely to laugh at my jokes here. Actually, they might be more polite here.) So we were able to come in and feel a good degree of comfort right away. Besides the building feeling familiar, many of the faces of students looked familiar as well and that was great.
One of the most important changes to the program this year is that later in the week a dozen students from BT will be joining us and then for Shabbat, 24 SSG students plus teachers and our whole team will be together for a Shabbaton. We did a good deal of prep work with our students back in Baltimore, and I sent a letter of explanation and some packing instructions to the SSG kids, but yesterday was my first time to meet with face to face with the SSG kids and talk about what to expect and answer any questions they have. I was worried that the student would have concerns about not using their phones for a whole 25 hours. Nope, no worries. Actually they are looking forward to experiencing that. I thought maybe they would have concerns about what prayer would look like. Nope, no more concerned than our own American kids would be. What questions did they have? How formal do their clothes have to be; Heels or flats? Ties and jackets or just button down shirts? I was just fascinated by that. I told them that in America my daughter would answer the question in a particular way, but I didn’t know if it would translate well. I told them it would be “Fancy, but not fancy fancy.” And they all nodded and said they understood. Proving that kids are weird here too.
After our first trip we wondered together if there is real value to this work. The concerns are so great and the difficulties are so complex that we had to wonder if a week of teaching here could really make a difference. That question is still worthy but yesterday a young woman named Laura came over to share something with me. Laura came over and said she just wanted to say thank you. Oh? She shared that last year I spoke about prayer, she said she really didn’t know how to pray, and it felt weird and awkward. I gave her words of encouragement and some advice. She said that since our class she really has been davening and she just wanted to say thank you.
The questions about how best to help the Hungarian Jewish community are still real, but the question about whether our work here is meaningful and important are not. Because of this trip there is a young Jewish woman that prays regularly to the Creator. And now there are 24 Hungarian teens that are excited about spending Shabbat, a whole Shabbat uninterrupted by texts and Snapchat, and Facebook, together. What could be more important than that?
