Today I asked my class at Lauder Javne Iskola to write letters to my students at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. Here is a selection from their letters:
“I am too an American Jew. My father came to Hungary about 20 years ago and started a company…. There are many political reasons for why it would be much better to live in America (like racism, etc.), but this country tends to grow on you.
“Being a Jew in Hungary is definitely harder than it is in America. If you’re gonna use public transportation, it is advised to hide your david star necklace or if you wear a kippah, put a hat on it. I feel like the majority of non-Jews in Hungary are racist. If you are orthodox and only buy groceries from the kosher store, it is even more difficult. There are about 3-4 kosher stores in all of Hungary.”
“I think you should know about Hungary that this is a poor country filled with slightly depressed people. Budapest is not quite modern city but we are trying to make it better… In Hungary there’s some racist people who don’t know much about history so they hate the Jews. But this is a very beautiful place…. You have to try Hungarian food, they are really delicious.”
“We should be writing about Jewish life here if we consider ourselves Jewish. Well, I do… It’s not the same though as in America, it’s pretty hard here, not a lot of people will accept you, we do have our problems, but it’s getting better. Of course, there are plenty of people who don’t care about religion. I have plenty of friends, but being Jewish isn’t such a common thing here… We really do feel special. 🙂
“Hungary is a beautiful place though with beautiful buildings. 🙂 The best part is probably the long walks. It’s fun being a teenager here, of course our school gives us a community that really can’t hurt us, you can really have fun! You can get to know very awesome people and have a lot of fun. This place is really worth to visit. 🙂
“I consider myself a jew, but not even close to the orthodox… I wear my necklace, I have a big part of my family in Israel, family eats together during every Shabat, you know, like religious, but not brutally. It’s always fun to find out how other jewish kids live around the world. 🙂 I’d love to go to a school once, where everyone’s Jewish (don’t think I don’t love my school, it’s amazing, with amazing teachers and people) but it’s different. :)”
“I’m not jewish and neither is anyone in my family yet I was very pleasantly accepted in this school. I think that being jewish in Hungary is no different than being jewish in the states…. This school is amazing and it gives you many great opportunities. And even though we have judaism, different breaks and programs in the school it isn’t very strict with being jewish. My point being that it’s very liberal in every way. Budapest is a gorgeous city that is very worth to see.”
