I had a moment. A moment in which I received something special. A moment in which something changed within me. A moment in which I felt alive. A moment in which I felt cared about. That moment was our last night in Hungary. After what felt like such a short week full of amazing memories and experiences, like our trips across the Danube, to our visits to the Holocaust memorials and zoo, to the bread eating, to the bonding while making and listening to songs, we had formed a bond unlike any I had ever felt before. I felt and currently feel so happy to be part of such an amazing program in which everyone wants to learn from each other but most importantly grow and learn about their Judaism. The amount of untapped passion and excitement in the Jewish teens in Hungary is absolutely inspiring and my goal was to try and tap into that unknown passion for Judaism and show them the pride and beauty that is intertwined with every aspect of Judaism. Over the course of our last shabbas there I had the pleasure and honor of giving two students wh
o had never had a bar mitzvah, an Aliya in the traditional Torah reading service. Little did I know how much it would mean to the two kids after the fact. After their Aliya, they instantly looked so happy and excited which in turn excited me. I felt so lucky in that moment to be a part of the start to their amazing Jewish journey.
Anyways, after Shabbat ended no one wanted for the Shabbas experience to end so many of us formed an anti-phone table in which we continued to have deep meaningful conversations without the distraction of our devices. The moment it all clicked was later that night when all the students gathered by a raging campfire and sang and danced together and really bonded in our last couple hours together. However, the fire reminded me of something I saw earlier that week in the courtyard behind the Dohany Synagogue. We had seen a Holocaust 
memorial of a massive stain glass wall and on the wall was fire consuming a snake. And we were told that the snake symbolized the Nazis and the fire represented the Jews. The message the artist of this Memorial was trying to convey was that the Jewish people are full of passion and excitement, and yearning for our Judaism and those feelings will consume anyone who tries to destroy us. So sitting there by the campfire thinking about that while hugging and singing and bonding in those last few hours together became the highpoint of my trip. We then proceeded to stay up together since we wanted to maximize our time spent with each other and continued to bond the rest of the night. I learned so much about the strength in unity and the love between brotherhood and sisterhood of the Jewish people and it is something I will never forget. The friendships I forged with be everlasting and I hope to continue to strengthen my own and other peoples Judaism through more experiences like these! I want to thank everyone who made this trip possible because without you I would not have been able to take part in such an amazing and life-changing experience. ~ Avishye
