As I am writing this a few days after the events, it is difficult to keep track of all that we have done. We visited at the Scheiber School, which is the other large Jewish Day School in Budapest. Radically different that the Lauder School. Even upon entering one is aware of the more pronounced emphasis on Jewish observance. There were signs announcing times for Tefillot, all males were wearing kippot, there was jewish art celebrating the holidays. However, despite this appeal, I still very much preferred the Lauder School. Beginning with the physical plant, the Lauder School is a much newer building with vibrant colors and interesting design. In fact, seen from above it is in the shape of a jewish star. The students seem much more eclectic and perhaps more similar to our JDS students. Finally, there is a relaxed attitude at the Lauder school that is missing from the Scheiber school. When I entered the classroom at Scheiber, the students all stood up! I was in such disbelief that I left the room and then entered again…and then left and entered….and then left and entered….by the 4th time they stopped standing up. In terms of study, I felt that the students at Lauder were more attentive although, to be fair, we did teach at Scheiber at the very end of the day.
A word about what I have been teaching. I prepared a few different lessons but, because there were no repeat classes, I essentially repeated the same lesson each time. It was a class on triage, saving one life over another (I have mentioned this in a past blog). What was interesting to me was that all the time I was teaching I questioned whether it would be wise to bring up triage issues from the holocaust. There is, for example, a famous responsa by Rav Oshry about giving out a limited number of visas when everyone was demanding a visa and a way to leave the country. I was worried, however, about how this would be received by the students, some of whom may have had relatives who were either the recipients of such visas or, perhaps even among those who did not receive a visa. I thought specifically about the Kastner affair, which I had been taught visas were selectively given to family members of Kastner to the exclusion of others and how this became more known during the Eichmann trial. Ultimately I did bring up some other holocaust situations, but left out the Kastner affair. Interestingly, however, during a walking tour of the ghetto on our last day, the guide spoke about Kastner and presented a very different picture, even seeing him as a sympathetic leader. Fascinating to think how events in history can be understood in such different ways. I am looking forward to doing more research on this topic….by the way, this same guide told me that there is an historian from Rockville who wrote a book on this exact topic.
Dinner featured an appearance by the rebbetzin of the Frankl synagogue. She was also very involved in the summer camp and told us a rather horrifying story. A child was sent to the camp by his parents, but only days after being told that he was Jewish for the first time! In order to educate the child about what it meant to be a Jew, they decided to show him the movie Schindler’s List. The child arrived in camp with his suitcase in hand and then disappeared. He was finally found trying to climb over the fence and leave the camp. Evidently he did not understand that this was a summer camp and not a concentration camp, as was depicted in the movie. As I am writing this I realize that the story could be seen as comical….however, knowing now what we know about member of the Jewish community, and the difficulties in connecting and understanding their identities, none of us around the table laughed. It was, in fact, a tragic story.
