I don’t think that I’ve ever had a week like the one that just finished and I suspect that most teachers haven’t. I had a chance to travel to a beautiful and exotic sounding city, Budapest, and do something that I love to do, with talented and passionate colleagues. At the risk of being inarticulate, I will just summarize some of my thoughts, in no particular order.
The Budapest Jewish community – There is no doubt that the Holocaust plays a much larger role in the psyche of the average Hungarian Jew than it does in the mind of an American Jew. For all intents and purposes Hungarian Jewry was destroyed by 1945. Whatever Jews survived the war and decided to try and rebuild here were set upon by the wolves of Communism. When the iron curtain was finally lifted the community had no infrastructure capable of revitalizing its young people. There was no model for people to emulate. We learned that right now there are two ways that are typical for young people to learn they are Jewish. In one scenario a young person comes home saying something like, “they called me a filthy Jew!” To which the mother responds well, it’s true, you are a Jew. The other sene is where a young person comes home and says “so and so is an f-ing Jew” to which a parent says, “Don’t say that, you are one too.” We met a young lady over Shabbos who learned she was Jewish at her father’s funeral. As they buried him in a Jewish cemetery she figured out she’s Jewish.
At the same time that this is true there is another truth as well. There are 4 Jewish high schools. There are 3 kosher restaurants. There are now 25 active synagogues. There is a kosher “makolet” (bodega). There are young people starting to reclaim their heritage. But it is so hard. Jewish infrastructure is so tenuous and the country is so poor. To be honest, it seems to me that what they really need is a generation of great teachers and great schools. But also, I can’t imagine why a teacher who is knowledgeable and talented would stay and teach here. It is SO HARD to make a living here, especially as a teacher. I just can’t imagine a person with a family passing up the opportunity to leave here if they could. And many want to. 30-50 percent of the students we met with told a colleague of mine that they dream of leaving Hungary.
Teaching – I started teaching more than 20 years ago if you count substituting and Hebrew school. Like in all things, there are good days and bad days. There are days when you feel like you did something important and there are days where you wonder what the hell the point is. This week I had a chance to teach kids in a way that they never experienced. (That’s what they and their teachers and other observers said.) They had never been asked what they think a Jewish text means. They have never been asked to think deeply about what things mean or how they apply in their own lives. And they have never had such a fun time in a Judaic studies class. So it made me feel important and special that I had a chance to make them enjoy Torah studies, maybe for the first time. And not just enjoy the class, but recognize the depth of Torah.
On Shabbos I helped run a Friday night meal at the Moishe House. (Moishe House is an international network of houses that are staffed by young adults who provide Jewish engagement programming in return for free or reduced rent in the home.) Our group of 40-somethings (mmm and maybe a couple older than that 😉 )had dinner with around 10 college students and young professionals. My job was to run the meal and make it important and memorable. I decided that the best plan was to make it fun. These young Hungarian Jews need to know that Shabbos is important, I know, but I think that what they needed right now was to know that it could be fun. They can do it, and they can enjoy it, and then they can do it without us. There was a lot of laughter; it was a great time. We learned about each other and we played silly games and it was a blast. Perhaps most rewarding was that before we left for the evening I took each of the 20-somethings off to the side and gave them brachos and davened for them. And they were each grateful for the time together. They would love for us to come back and do it again. (I think I’ll need a new round of games.)
So I had a chance to do both formal and informal education here and I loved it all. I found young adults and kids ready to learn, eager to have someone teach them about Torah. And I have renewed faith in my contribution to this work.
Colleagues – I’ve worked on teams before and in departments. I’ve gone away on Shabbatonim and trips with colleagues. But I have never done anything like this, where I had a chance to pick my own team, put everyone in a new situation, see how everyone was a bit scared, a bit unsure, and then see EVERY SINGLE member of the team succeed beyond any measure. There were lots of moments over the last week that are unforgettable, from realizations about kids and teaching to realizations about English/Hungarian homonyms that resulted in some awkward learning moments for me and some fellow teachers. (Hysterical, awkward, and not for this format.) Tonight at dinner we were comparing our bonding to the kids in the movie the Breakfast Club. Although we have been assured by the self-declared “Molly Ringwald” that she would still talk to us when we pass in the hall next week. This has been a truly incredible experience and I can’t imagine doing it with a more talented group. Everyone is so open and so eager and so available to listen and share that it made a truly engaged and cohesive group.
The sign of a great program is that the participants want more. We’re eager for the next steps. We want to host our Hungarian colleagues. We want our kids to share this too. We can’t wait to come back and do it bigger and better.
