The Past and The Future

One of the greatest accomplishments we have in Hungary is the revitalization of Jewish life for the "new generation" and the "missing generation."

In 1948 when the communists took power, lots of Jews saw it as a very positive sign, finally they could look to a better future. Those who – on an individual level – emphasized their personal and religious Jewish identity, had already left. Those who wanted to be 'Hungarians' stayed. 

In 1956 there were anti-Semitic outbreaks as a reaction against the Communists. Many religious Jews left. 

Therefore, those who remained were - even more so - those who didn't take their Jewish identity as an important factor and didn't educate their children about their heritage. 

And others left when the regime fell in the 1990s.

So the revitalization of Jewish life, in places like the Balint JCC, is critical .... and it's happening on a scale that is unprecedented for Hungary. You can see the future of Jewish Hungary in this video.

Hungarian horizons

I was in Boston yesterday with my colleague Zoya Shvartzman, JDC’s Director of Strategic Partnerships for Europe. 

Zoya is Moldovan-born, growing up in Tel Aviv and Vancouver, and has lived and worked in Montreal, Mexico, Budapest and Tel Aviv. Specifically, we came for a series of meetings with CJP, the Boston Jewish Federation, to discuss our work in Hungary and prepare a mission for the summer.

One of the aspects of that work that fascinates me about Hungary is how the horizons and challenges of the Jewish community intersect. Hungary has the fourth-largest Jewish community in Europe (after France, the UK and Germany), with some 120,000 … but the total number of Jews participating in any form of community engagement is probably no more than 20,000. Maybe less.

And one of the key questions we discussed with professionals at CJP yesterday was the difference between engagement and outreach in the Jewish community.

Here in the US, we sometimes use the terms interchangeably. But in fact they're very different.

In Hungary we can't engage the middle and older generation, because in so many cases, there’s no one with whom we can engage. 

There’s no Jewish memory, no Jewish collective education. They were cut off for so long, and much of what we take for granted in the West as aspects of Jewish life – synagogues, religious institutions, federations, community organizations – are treated with suspicion. So outreach is more of the flavor. 

And unlike in the US, where we reach out to parents, and through them we can reach the kids, in places like Hungary we have to reach out first to the kids, and hope that through them we can reach through to the parents.

That’s why Szarvas Camp, the Balint JCC programs and other young-family programs are so critical.

And that’s why what happens in Hungary will be the precursor, in many ways, to what we try to do in many other countries around the world.

Hungary

I spent the last couple of days with my colleague Zsuzsa Fritz, Director of the Balint Jewish Community Center in Budapest and the International Szarvas Camp in Hungary.

Like so many in Hungary, her family sought to protect her and never told her that she was Jewish—concerned that she would never be able to advance in communist Hungary if she was openly Jewish. There were no elements of Jewish life in her home growing up, though all her family members were Jewish.

Then at age 16, Zsuzsa's father died and at his funeral, conducted with Jewish traditions, she discovered that she was Jewish.  For several months she tried to absorb this stunning reality.

This was then the last decade before communism's fall and the Jews of Hungary started to feel more secure as Jews. She joked that her mother asked her to go find a nice boy at a local Jewish Rabbinical school, and listening to her, she started attending all kinds of Jewish events, eventually leading her to a trip to Israel and a lifetime career in informal Jewish education.

With her exceptional drive and passion for informal Jewish education, today Zsusza is the Director of the Balint JCC, a focal point for Jewish life in Budapest. Today Hungary is home to 120,000 Jews, the largest Jewish community in central Europe.

Her story is the story of Hungary's Jews, a miraculous transformation that she passionately shared, first-hand, and which is still taking place through the support of our partners.