‘If you will it, it is no dream, and if you do not will it, a dream it is and a dream it will stay.’ – THEODOR HERZL, 1902
This is how I can sum up the day we have been through. We wanted it, it is not a dream anymore, we are doing it and we are doing it together. BT and SSG. It is much more than friendship. Our kids are brothers and sisters. Words cannot express how important we consider it is to keep the relationship between our kids all alive. That is how we felt at the end of our extremely busy and very useful day.
To begin the day we were hosted by Peter Paplanos, the Head of Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of Hungary in Washington DC. First, he made a presentation for all of us, for the sake of BT students when he told them about those Hungarian Jews who became world-famous. Among them, he mentioned Theodor Herzl, Imre Lichtenfeld – founder of Krav Maga and so many more. We then heard about some further plans that the embassy fulfills cooperating with the Hungarian Jewish Community in Budapest, supported by Yad Vashem as well. Hopefully, the matter of antisemitism is going in the right way. After the presentation, BT kids’ questions were answered. We also learned the fact that Israel is the third biggest investor in Hungary and the USA is the second biggest one, which means to us that our country does matter on an international basis. It is another important reason to keep our personal relationships alive, which we are sure both parties can take advantage of. He put a strong emphasis on the bilateral relationship that is between the two countries.
Yisroel A, Grade 10 was happy to play the very famous Boganyi piano at the Embassy. It was beautiful and heart-warming to listen to him play.
Last but not least Mr. Paplanos told us that he as the Head of Public Diplomacy at the Hungarian Embassy is widely open to any common project which helps the two communities keep our bridge between us which he considers as a flourishing project and is worth all the support it possibly can get.
Our following programs were visiting the Lincoln Memorial and we could also see the Washington Monument from inside. Kids were all amazed by the spectacular view.
Following this, we went inside the US Capitol Visitor Center where we were shown around in the crypt. We learnt a lot about the statues set up there. e.g. the fact that the number of statues represents the thirteen colonies which became one nation in around 1787 with the Constitution of the United States.
After the Capitol, we were honored to meet Congressman John Sarbanes who had a very friendly welcoming conversation with us. He introduced himself to the kids and told them about the story of his career. He also introduced the House of Representatives and in a few words and had an interactive conversation with the kids. Finally, he expressed how opened he was to any form of relationship between the kids of the two schools. He also expressed how important he considered it to keep such relations going on. We were very happy to see how many important people welcome what we have been doing, which makes us keep believing how important is our mission and it could not exist without the further support of SOS International: Enriching Jewish Identities or the support of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School.
By the end of the day our kids were mixed. They are not kids from BT or SSG any longer, they are the kids from the same community, who have one goal, one heart and one way to go together on and holding hand together they can fulfill the dream that Alan Reinitz and Glynis Smith had one day, bridging Jewish Communities throughout the world, enriching Jewish Identities and it means to us something that we must take care of and there is no doubt about it for sure.
Following through Theodor Herzl, we hope we will (want) this dream enough to come true that it will not stay a dream, but remains reality so that we can all be proud of what we have created together. It cannot be sustained without our common will, so we are very grateful again to everyone involved in the project with all of their hearts. ~ Violetta Varga, SSG
