Tuesday was our first morning with our amazing hosts. I ate a traditional American breakfast with pancakes and maple syrup. Then my host drove me to school. While driving I could see the neighborhood around houses. I was surprised to see that almost everyone who I saw on the street was a religious Jew. When I arrived at school, I participated in a morning prayer which was a wonderful spiritual experience for me to see how many students are praying together. After a short break we had our first workshop, done by Dr Neil Rubin and Dr Jill Aizenstein. It was the first time that I had seen an interactive workshop. Previously I had thought that a workshop was a frontal way of teaching something. It was an interesting conversation between the BT and SSG students. We talked about how we lived a Jewish life in our home countries and what things we could do against antisemitism. After the workshop we went to the school cafeteria to eat lunch. There was a huge selection of foods there. I ate pasta with broccoli and for desert I had a brownie. It was all so delicious. ~ David, Szilágyi
After lunch, we quickly started the second workshop, led by Rabbi Wohlberg, the founder of BT, and Dr Schorr, who is the Director of Education of the Beth Tfiloh Community School. In the workshop we heard two speeches made by Dr. Schorr, and one made by Rabbi Wohlberg, the founder of the school. The speeches were really impressive. Honestly, these speeches were interesting, useful and also fun to listen to, which was such a lovely surprise. The funniest part definitely was when Rabbi Wohlberg told us a sentence in Hungarian. We first didn’t understand what he wanted to say, but it turned out to be the first line of probably the most famous Hungarian poem, ‘Nemzeti dal’, written by Sandor Petőfi.”. It was ‘Talpra Magyar, hí a haza!’
After the workshop we had a quick Mincha. It was good to see the similarities and differences between the way BT students pray, and the way we do it.
When we were finished with the Mincha, we got to visit a class. I went to an American Literature class with Mr. Green. The class was good, it was very different than the literature classes we have in Hungary. It was also a really good experience to witness an actual class, with me being the only Hungarian student there. We learned about semicolons, appositives and about a poem by Robert Frost.
The school ended and everyone went out with their hosts. My host Adam, took me to his golf training, and he taught me how to play golf. It was really fun, because I hadn’t played golf before. First I thoughtI was really bad at it, but then I enjoyed it very much.
After the golf practice we went back to school to watch a play put on stage by middle school kids. It was The Lion King. It has been AMAZING and definitely one of the best parts of our trip so far (at least for me). The actors were amazing, the set was amazing, the props, the costumes, the set… everything was awesome. I really like musical theatre and I am so happy that we got to see this play. This is literally dreams coming true.
After the play we hopped into the car and we went to a dinner (I don’t remember the name of it). I had my very first American milkshake, I also talked with students I hadn’t had a conversation before, so that was fantastic too.
I can’t really summarize this day, I’m still influenced by the events. And as I’m writing this at 11.30pm; I’m still unbelievably happy, and I’m still smiling uncontrollably as I think of everything that happened today. ~ Illés, Gergely
