During the school day our home base is in the school library. Ordinarily the teacher we are paired with is supposed to come to the library and walk us to our class since the school is 4 stories and a basement. But today was the third teaching day of our second year so we all know the building by now. Typically a teacher from Scheiber Sandor would walk in to the library, look around and ask, “Where’s Lisa?” And we would say, “Oh, she left for class already.” So today when I left the library, walked down the stairs, went into the room and started teaching right after the passing bell, without a Scheiber Sandor teacher, it felt normal. We feel like part of the faculty.
During my grade 13 class this morning I led the students through an activity in which they write about a possession that has special significance for them. One student wrote about an ash tray and another wrote his hookah. One of the biggest cultural differences between America and Hungary for me is the attitude toward smoking here, which is clearly more relaxed. Yesterday, after school, I stood on the steps and said good bye to the students while waiting for the taxi to take me back to the hotel. As I stood there, the older students in the school would walk down the steps, say good bye to me and take their lighters and cigarettes out of their pockets. Then they would sit down across the street from the school and smoke while waiting for their friends. I reflected at that moment how easy it is to take for granted the lives that have been saved in the United States by years of public health advertising campaigns about smoking.
When the Beth Tfiloh students arrived the tone changed immediately. Within minutes it seemed like the BT and the Hungarian students were old friends. They instantly bonded over the universal teenage language of basketball, music and smart phones.
Two quick stories illustrate the immediate unity of the students. In the afternoon we visited the Dohany Synagogue. While there Rabbi Soskil suggested we daven mincha and explained to the Hungarian students that one of the BT students is saying Kaddish and so while davening mincha was not obligatory, he would appreciate it if people helped make a minyan. Not one student left. All the students stood there and answered Eitan’s Kaddish.
Later after dinner Rabbi Soskil announced that we would say the first paragraph of bentching out loud and people could finish quietly to themselves if they wanted to do so. All the students participated in bentching. They all knew the words and the tune–and the ones who had energy left even did hand motions. It was a reminder that Judaism can connect teenagers across different continents and different languages.
