By Isaac Pretter
Exploring the Jewish Revival in Budapest and the Rich History of Riga
I have been privileged to be a part of The Jewish Federations of North America’s (JFNA) National Young Leadership Cabinet for the past six years. It’s an incredible program where I am part of a network of Jewish leaders throughout North America and learn from the best practices in each community.
I recently participated in a Cabinet Study Mission to Riga, Latvia and Budapest, Hungary. We learned about the rich Jewish history in each area and saw the current state of the Jewish communities.
In Riga, we visited a Jewish school, funded by World ORT, that is increasing enrollment and quickly outgrowing its space. We saw the only remaining synagogue in Riga in its Old City and met its incredible rabbi.
In Hungary, one of the highlights was traveling three hours from Budapest to visit Camp Szarvas (funded by JDC and JFNA). We toured the camp and met with families who were refugees from Odesa, Ukraine.
We all had tears listening to their stories of what they have endured during this war. This was especially moving for me as I know that Baltimore has a long relationship with Odesa as a sister city. When I mentioned I was from Baltimore, their faces lit up as they are so fond of our partnership. I became a lot more familiar with what we do in Israel and overseas as we had representatives from The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) with us on our mission.
In Budapest, we toured a Holocaust Museum and the shoe memorial on the banks of the Danube River. Singing Hatikvah at the shoe memorial was emotional. The Hungarian Jewish community suffered large losses in the Holocaust. I learned that many Hungarians who are Jewish are afraid to tell their children they are Jewish because of the trauma still felt from the Holocaust.
Another thing I found surprising was how many institutions turned off their heat due to the cost from the energy crisis. We were shivering in the synagogue attached to the Holocaust Museum because they could not afford the heating bills.
Those visits were in contrast to the Jewish revival we then saw visiting the Budapest JCC and the Jewish quarter and the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in all of Europe.
Being on a mission allowed for access to many Jewish leaders in each community and the opportunity to speak with them. They joined us for Friday night dinner and we also had a separate dinner with the US Ambassador to Latvia. By chance, we were on the same flight leaving Latvia as the Latvian Prime Minister so we had a good time with him on the flight. (I think the JFNA mission security is stronger than the Latvian Prime Minister’s detail).
Overall, it was an incredible experience of non-stop action and learning. The only thing missing was sleep.
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