Köszönöm is the first word I learned on our very first night in Hungary. Peter Varga, my partner teacher, taught it to me at our welcome dinner, and it is the word that characterizes my week in Hungary. Köszönöm means thank you, and I have had so many reasons and opportunities to say it while here. All week long, I have remarked with my colleagues how grateful and fortunate I am to have had this experience. They feel the same. My heart is full to overflowing with gratitude for the thoughtful planning that has gone into making sure that our time at Lauder Javne with our partner teachers and with the students is mutually beneficial. Each tour we took to learn the complex history of the Jews in Hungary informed our understanding and shaped our time at Lauder Javne. The bottom line is that Jewish identity is tricky. I think our time at Moishe House made that the most clear to me. To see young adults looking to find ways to continue living Jewishly is not lost on me. Many of them had no idea they were Jewish until they came to that understanding, sometimes accidentally, as teens or in their early twenties. I wonder if our students and alumni of Adelson can relate to that at all. Jewish identity and being American are not so much at odds with one another, and yet we still seek to find meaningful ways to help our students at Adelson connect to Judaism.
Our time at Lauder Javne culminated in our Kabbalat Shabbat service where David led us through a Koolulam-esque singalong. All week, he has been teaching band members and students his arrangement of “This Is Me” to prepare for the performance today. It was a fitting end to the week. The song is an anthem of hope and a celebration of the beauty of each individual-one that allows us to attest boldly to the world: THIS IS ME. The individual in the collective. The collective comprised of individuals. Many voices. One song. A shared and moving experience. A moonshot of sorts and one for which I am thankful.
I know I will continue to process this week and remain thankful for the deep lessons it has already imparted to me. I have much to be grateful for and look forward to welcoming our partner teachers from Lauder Javne to Adelson in early 2019. Köszönöm.
