Gabi's Narnia

Mazel tov!

The cantor of the synagogue got married today in the army of J-celebs. All the top leadership was there, reading a few lines of blessing! It was a beautiful, story-telling event, with little, but to the point talk and parts of Aaron's blessing, which brought some salty liquid to the corner of my eye. Mazel tov to the young couple!
And we won't marry neither Zolt'ay nor Feld'májer, that's for sure! Hmmmm.
Great evening in the Sirály afterwards, with some short conversations (9PM-1AM), an alternative Hannukia (Hannukah candleholder) installation which worked exactly as the candle in the synagogue. I mean it worked equally not. H.Zsófi JP-offline meeting and my beloved dentist behind the discs. What a day... after such an early and good start! 

Jee... Jesus

Excerpt from a conversation I had today with the husband of the best Jewish Hungarian cook.
Blah-blah... huge rattling of glasses and the obvious sound of glasses breaking.
G: Jee... Jesus.... The one we don't even know.
Meaningful exchange of glances and lips just about to turn into a smiles.
Me: Well, speak only for yourself.
And a huge laughter.

Gosh, funny to note that my Jewish friends know Jesus is not unknown to me :)

Limmud - Keset

If I stayed in Budapest for the weekend, I would definitely pay a visit here. However, I am going to indulge in playing with and delighting in the little son of my beloved friend and former flatmate, Tündi. Too bad we live so far away.

New wave of persecution

Today we went to the prayer tower with some messianic Jewish friends to discuss insights about the Jewish situation and also pray. My colourful friend felt a strong urge to pray in thi s financial crisis when anger and disappointment can easily turn to seek scapegoats, which more than often happen to be the Jews. We collected a rich pool of prophetic, financial and common sense insights and we are all concerned that the Christians have to be educated about replacement theology, about the role of Israel and the fact that God has plans with His people. (ok, the Christians are His people too, but here I am referring to the Jews).

I shared about the European Coalition for Israel, and the meaningful political instruction and education my friend does there. We also found the Danish co-operation of wearing yellow stars by everyone when it was ordered for Jews (even if it is an urban legends, they still saved their Jews) exemplary. It is equally important to instruct Christians and at the same time get ready practically. Somehow it is also a burden on my heart that my Jewish friends have no intentions whatsoever to do alijay and go to Israel. Rather, some of them are pondering about moving to Berlin for its cultural relevance and social openness. Some others are considering distant lands such as Australia and New Zealand. But none of them ever mentioned moving to Israel. Interesting. I also have a few friends who did move to Israel, became Israeli citizens and came back to Hungary because life is not all that easy in the Middle-Eastern Western-Balkan country either. Gosh, how would you assist in such a process, i.e. informing Jews about the importance of preparing for escape, escaping to Israel?!? Ahmenidejad seems a bigger threat that the present resurge of anti-semitism and the nationalistic tendencies prevailing all over Europe, which are totally reasonable, especially reading Huntington. Tough question and we are seeking guidance. If you have your two cents and practical ideas, shoot them forth. They are welcome!

Judarsaw

Judapest sounds much better, doesn't it? Well, it's Jewish Warsaw I was interested in.
Pictures up, slideshow here. Sorry, didn't separate the newly built section with its high rising glassy towers from the remnant of the ghetto and the last surviving synagogue. It shouldn't be a problem. Why?
Upon watching movies like the Pianist one can easily think that's exaggeration! If you can recall the scene when Brody stumbles around in an absolutely devastated neighborhood... you remember... at 00:58-59 of this trailer Now, that was actually the closest one could depict Warsaw at the end of the war. No, I have seen pictures and documentaries before, but to see that in real life through the present city planning is radically different. Almost an entire city was demolished... it really looked like Carthage. I strongly recommend a full afternoon walk as I did to get the taste of its magnitude and to connect it with picture viewing then. If you see bricks, buildings that show the rectangular shapes which give away their age... it's solemn to reach out and touch what was once the wall of the Ghetto, the old factory and be amazed how much those inanimate construction materials have seen.

The Soviets built some in order to arouse gratitude, with the famous clock tower and museum complex bearing Stalin's megalomaniac egoism. I happened to like its gloomy rule over the very non-traditional downtown area.

But most of those Soviet buildings are trash and now these skyscrapers are taking over the city. You could never do such a thing to downtown Prague, Krakow or Budapest, it would be smashing the grace for good. But if you have something that much destroyed you've got room to play around. I kind a love Berlin for the exact same reason. Potsdamer Platz is an ecstatic view day/night.

Now, having explained why the new buildings are very much historians of the old, let's talk about the progressive, cool Jewish initiatives I encountered. Hehe. Gosh, I was looking hard, but one needs to do her homework better, don't read about the history/places only at the airport, minutes prior to setting out...   Thus there wasn't anyone I could ask, the young gatekeeper at the synagogue I didn't dare for fear of the rabbi sitting next to him. Don't imagine a Darvas, I plead with you.
But I prayed a lot and the spiritual environment brought the inherently sicklish character of Eastern Europe even more alive. You didn't have to toil hard to feel at home at this depressed, competing, youth-losing environment.  The  proverbial Polish-Hungarian comradery is tangible in the air. Economic growth - still poverty. Western prospect - Eastern European thinking. Beautiful people - terribly sad faces. Intellect - inability to break through. Creativity - power of conformism. Old pattern - confronting younger generation. Low pay - UK plumbing. Etc...

I have yet to see the place and people either Jewish or not to show a way forward in this setting (in Poland). shadai and the JP crew together with Marom (for lack of knowing other initiatives well enough, I would mention only these two of the Jewish ones)provide a venue for a cultural (religious) identity in our present setting, with an understanding of the past, but not feeding exclusively from its pain and pointing towards the future we are building right now.
It is good!
Hope there is sth similar happening in Warsaw as well. I guess this generation that leaves in far greater numbers than during any other immigration waves to the New World should stay and look up and ahead to find the way forward. Leaving everything behind as most of them do won't help neither the individual nor the country.
On a positive note, their Purim poster was very cool at the synagogue. Next time I'll ask the young guy, no matter the rabbi.

the Portuguese 'Schindler'

Rather, Wallenberg.
Unforgotten, now re-established. Aristides de Sousa Mendes. More on him here.

Judapest roooocks... the flódni story in English

Background info from Budapest Times. Summary: hurt Jewish religious leaders reject the lunch invitation of the President and Judapest's Shadai jumps in with a gift flódni, a traditional Jewish dessert.
Amazing myriad of comments and delighted people who appreciate the action, but read the spirit of it for yourselves:

His Excellency, Mister President, dear László Sólyom!
The Judapest.org is an online civil Jewish community which has existed exactly for three years now. The Judapest.org is committed to progressive and alternative Jewish expressions as for culture, politics, religion or communities. Our mere existence is a proof that the Hungarian Jewry has pluralistic roots, we are a varied and diverse community, just as Jewish tradition has always been.

The (official) political representation of the Hungarian Jewry is not known to be pluralistic at all. The only official Jewish representation, the Mazsihisz (The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities) enjoys full monopoly and rejects the aforementioned plurality in all its activities.

As a symbolic act we would like to send flódni (Hungarian Jewish dessert, yummy!!!) for today's lunch meeting on behalf of the Judapest.org community in order to express our deep conviction of the necessity of dialogue and pluralism.

Budapest, 4 December 2007

Yours sincerely,
name

Now the best is that this flódni turned out to be the dessert at the luncheon, contrary to all security procedures. (They might have a mobile poison-lab around the president or checked it on a bodyguard, who knows :) So in the course of a couple of hours Shadai and SE managed to purchase, gift-wrap and Judapest.org sticker-seal the flódni and hand it to the protocol chief at the Presidential Residency, the Sándor Palace.

The funniest in it all is that the Hetiválasz in response sent two beiglis (another Hungarian dessert, one with puppy seed, the other with walnut filling) which was happily consumed by a group of falafel tasting companions, at a Judapest.org (on Facebook) offline event.

Ahh, have a look at pestcentric as well.