Rabbi Hoffman travels to Hungary and Israel

From February 23 to March 1, Rabbi Hoffman is travelling to Hungary and Israel on a mission with 30 rabbis from all across the US.

Shabbat in Budapest part 2:

Even though we aren't on this mission to sleep, the late start time for our visit to the Dor Chadash minyan was welcome. At a little after 10:00a.m. we walked into the Jewish quarter and after winding through the streets made our way to an apartment building where we had to ring a bell for entrance. In contrast to our experience last night at the Heroes Synagogue, we were greeted with a bright smile from a young woman in her 20's named Rita. She led us up the stairs to an apartment where the Dor Chadash (New Generation) minyan regularly meets. Our small group entered the room and through some cordial introductions we proceeded to sit in a circle, that would gradually expand to fill the room as more people arrived. Like so many of the independent minyanim that are sprouting up in our communities in the United States, the feel of the space was energetic. Given the transient nature of this particular minyan (normally the Dor Chadash group meets on Friday nights) and the relatively new traditions they are cultivating, it is good to see this minyan starting where it is. The ten or so members of the Rqbbinic delegation that participated with this community were all profoundly moved by the soulful nature of the prayers, and how they sang many contemporary and hasdic melodies familiar to our own congregations and in Israel. The group has a young rabbinical student who volunteers as the prayer leader. Using English, Hebrew, and Hungarian, he led us through a Torah study that highlighted this special occasion with the commandment for each person to bring gifts for God from whatever their heart desires. We all brought and shared gifts of joy and wisdom during our time together.

Dor Chadash is one of several efforts to engage the young professional population in Budapest. Supported by the Masorti Movement, our donations from the United States and Israel help this fledgling group of seekers for Egalitarian prayer and Conservative traditions thrive. As we continue to learn about the Budapest community over the next day and a half, we will see that the young professional population is a vibrant part of the community. One of the guides poigniantly observed the young professionals are extremely active in their 20's, but as soon as they get married and have a child, they strangely disappear from the Jewish scene. For those of us studying the trends of the Jewish community in the US, we observe the opposite trend and are ending significant energy engaging young professionals! There are some communities here that do model themselves after our communities in the States, i.e. serving multiple generations, but the number of active young people compared to the number of young families participation in Jewish communal life is shockingly low.

We enjoyed lunch at the Carmel restaurant again. (We will eat their food at least two more times while we're here!) and were offered some free time or to take an historical walk with one of guide's Dr. Michael Miller. A friend and I chose to walk the city absorbing the sounds, sites, and smells of this beautiful Eurpoean capital.
We met up later with the group at the ICI - The Israel Cultural Institute, an organization whose primary purpose is to teach and disseminate Israel related experiences and some features of Jewish culture to this large young population we will . We are introduced to several leaders of the Institute including Tomee the hip Hunarian educator who oversees a young leadership and learning program called Minyanim. We got about 30 minutes to meet one of the young people participating in this group. The young woman I interviewed, Luca (pronounced Lootza) was bubbly and dynamic, and spoke excellent English. She shared her thoughts on the many social issues that were troublesome to her as a young leader and as a Jewish woman. She, like so many of her generation, discovered her Jewishness as a young adult! (more about this later).   She also expressed a common desire among her peer group; a desire to move away from Budapest to live in another country. The mounting feelings of oppressive restrictions by the government, especially of free speech and religious practice do not inspire the largely cautious and reserved Jews in the city to go into the public square and share their mistrust openly.

After our sharing experience, we gather for Havdallah and get introduced to another unique group sponsored by the ICI called the Saturday Nite Fever group, a social organization of young adults 16-25 who are coming to learn about their Jewish identity. These young people will also learn about the potential to go to Israel through Taglit/Birthright. We play an ice breaker game where we ask each other the question, "What's your favorite Jewish holiday?" The severity of Jewish life being virtually lost in Hungary is revealed when response after response to Jewish questions like this are awkward and confused. For many of these young people, not only are they just beginning to learn about what it means to be a Jew, they're also learning what holidays there are in the calendar. Since the group only gathers to learn about and celebrate Shabbat, many of the participants have never heard of Hanukkah, or Rosh Hashanah, or even Pesah! As one of my colleagues remarked, this is why we must have the son, "who does not kow how to ask" sit at the table. From this experience, these children are not symbolically representing the fourth son, they truly are that child.   Once again, we are clearly reminded of how important the work is in building a vibrant Jewish community in Hungary.

We left ICI to return to the Carmel restaurant (I told you so!) where we are fortunate to meet the Israeli Ambassador to Hungary. He addressed the domestic issues and the diplomacy of support Hungary continues to maintain with the EU and by extension Israel. There is a positive diplomatic relationship between the countries and everyone is hopeful it will continue.

The long day is finally over and some of the colleagues gather to process all that we learned. It's tough to summarize the fullness of our Shabbat experience, but since Klal Israel, the sense of a unified Jewish people, played a prominent role in our exposure to the ICI and the work of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) the summary of our Shabbat is a prayer that in the future the fullness of Shabbat will contain a vibrant and fully present Hungarian Jewish community some day soon.