Generational Goulash
Radbam February 18th, 2009
Budapest, 2/17/09
Before the blog, there were vlogs—travelogues–accounts of journeys that filled the hearts and imaginations of millions unable or unwilling to risk travel at a time when the dangers of leaving home were legion, vastly different from the comfort and recreation of today’s intrepid leisure-seekers. And so, the Good God Blog will become a temporary vlog, recording my far-from-Keruoacian impressions on the road with my synagogue’s 12th graders.
Great Synagogue of Budapest, beautiful but empty. Image from: Chad K, flickr.com
The trip itself is a pedagogic carrot, committing increasingly over-programmed teens to stay connected to the community and our tradition amidst the temptations, distractions and demands of the ramp up to college and the good life it promises (hopefully in these trying times!) This year we find ourselves in Central Europe, in societies only now enjoying the fruits of social and market freedoms gained over the past 20 years since the Big Slavic Bear’s wall came tumbling down.
The purposes of the trip are social, cultural, educational and yes, perhaps even spiritual, as these just-legal adults encounter a Jewish context far older, yet far less able to take for granted than their own. They will find much museum-grade judaica, exotic artifacts that record a destroyed past, little reflecting a viable present. At times, it seems the synagogue buildings and 12-deep cemeteries outnumber the practicing Jews, though I’m told in Budapest this is less the case. Here, the vanquished Hungarian fascists and retreating storm troopers simply could not liquidate the Jewish masses fast enough. Elsewhere in the region, what Hitler didn’t annihilate, Communism assimilated into irrelevance.
My lion-hearted explorers, charting a course these 10 days that generations of their ancestors could scarcely have imagined, will confront their past, struggle with their present and re-imagine a future for themselves and the world—as individuals growing personally, and as global and generational citizens seeking a place for themselves and a part in our unfolding drama. I am privileged to be their guide, and fortunate to be their witness and their student.
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