Yom Ha'Shoa

Monday was Yom Ha'Shoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Israeli Student Organization in Hungary (ISOH) sent me a Facebook invite to their ceremony held in the original Pava utca synagogue next door to me. After my long day at school, I met Rebecca Garber from BSM at the synagogue to attend it together. The fold-away seats set in the restored synagogue were nearly full of people, young and old. Everyone wore white, which is what the event's organizers had encouraged people to do. The room was about two-thirds full of college aged students with the remaining third made up of families and even some Holocaust survivors. Unfortunately the hour long program was entirely in Hungarian and Hebrew, so neither Rebecca nor I understood anything. After the ceremony ended I looked around for any of the Jewish Hungarians I had met earlier at the community Friday night services, but I didn't see anyone.

I went home quickly to change back into street clothes to go to the Balint Haz. The ISOH had also sent a mass Facebook invitation to watch the movie Europa Europa, the true story of Solomon Perel, a German-Jew who survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Poland, becoming a Russian Komsomol youth officer, was captured by the Germans but hid his Judaism by convincing the soldiers that he was an ethnic German living outside the fatherland. He served as a German-Russian translator on the front and helped capture Josef Stalin's son. Later he was enrolled in the Hitler Youth back in Berlin and fell in love with a teenage girl who was a fervent Nazi. His story is too crazy to be true, and the movie is carried by the nearly fantastical series of events that eventually led to his liberation. A large part of the movie deals with Solomon hiding his circumcision from his friends, which would have immediately given him away. I couldn't help but remember the endless discussions on Philip Roth's The Counterlife that my Jewish literature class had last semester. I would highly recommend The Counterlife for anyone not looking for a simple, straightforward, easy, and certainly not introspective read. 

I had never been to the Balint Haz before. Its only one block off of Andrassy, the famous boulevard for Hungarian aristocrats under the Empire. The Balint Haz is a sort of small Israeli/Jewish community center. Rebecca didn't come to the movie with me, but she was at the Balint Haz anyway participating in her weekly Israeli dance group. Once I found were the movie would be shown, I introduced myself to the few people from ISOH who were setting up snacks. They were all Israeli and spoke English very well and made me feel at home. I had arrived ten minutes early and soon twenty other Israelis had come upstairs to fraternize and watch the movie. Everyone chatted away in Hebrew, and I didn't want to be that guy that made everyone speak English, so I waited for the movie to start. Afterwards 15 people hung around to have a discussion about the movie. They encouraged me to stay, saying that there was a Hungarian man who didn't speak Hebrew so the discussion would be in English for our sakes. 

One of the girls in charge asked people to share stories about the war from their own family's history. This is where I felt really out of place. Almost everyone had a story about how their family traveled around Europe or went to Israel to escape the Nazis and later the communists. Luckily, my grandparents and great-grandparents left Europe in the 1920's, before the rise of Nazism. The discussion then turned to Jewish identity under communism and in today's Hungary. The topic was particularly on people's minds since the day before was the national election in which the extreme right wing party won a 16% share of Parliament. The question of Jewish identity (what is it? how do you define it? can someone be "more" Jewish than another?) never has a clear answer. The conversation among the Israelis and Hungarians became a little heated and comments were flying across the room so fast it was hard to keep track. I wanted to throw in my two cents, but I struggled to find a significant American perspective that I thought they would like to hear. Let's face it, American Jews have it pretty well off compared to other Jews around the world, including Israel. As Americans we thoroughly exercise our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and speech nearly everyday. Its very rare that I hear stories of true anti-Semitism in America and many of my Jewish friends aren't afraid of displaying their religious observance openly in society. Its taken a while, but today religious discrimination in America is regarded as taboo, something that's archaic. 

In Hungary, however, I have heard a few Hungarian Jews tell me about their fear of openly displaying their Judaism, or telling new friends that they are Jewish. This issue dominated the discussion for a while and several people volunteered to share their own stories and observations. I hadn't realized just how widespread this phenomenon is. Everyone agreed that the situation for Hungarian Jews was improving in spite of the rise of European anti-Semitism. Much of the community's increased strength in the face of intolerance is due to many young and old adults suddenly discovering their Jewish heritage from an aging grandparent's revelation of Jewish blood in the family. A representative of the Jewish Agency who took part in the discussion said that for the past few years, the majority of Taglit Birthright participants from Hungary have been young people who just discovered their Judaism in their 20's. These fundamental differences separate the community that I'm used to in America with that of Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe. Our backgrounds are totally different. I learn so much from each new person I meet here. Its a little overwhelming.

Now its late again and I have to go to bed. I hope that my blog doesn't reek of "Jewishness." I've tried to post on a variety of subjects about my life in Hungary, but I keep getting drawn back into talking about Judaism. It was already such a big part of my life that its hard to ignore it. Plus, its turning out to be hard to ignore it in Budapest. As one Israeli who I met at the movie screening told me, "everywhere you look in Budapest has some sort of Jewish element to it." He is completely right. As if by natural instinct, nearly all of the bars, dance clubs, music clubs, and restaurants that the BSM students go to are populated by Budapest Jews or are located in the Jewish district. The Israeli said that Budapest has been the most Jewish city he has ever lived in.  Pretty remarkable, eh?

As a throwback to my DJ'ing days at the student radio station KVRX, I'm now taking requests for blog topics. My English teachers would call this a very uncreative move. I call it giving the power to the people.

God Bless America.     

Election Day

Another weekend has ended. How productive was I? Depends on your prospective. Many of the math kids had midterms and homework due on this past Thursday and Friday. I myself had my algebra midterm on Friday. Let's just say that I'm glad its over with and I can move on to making a strong second-half semester push towards that A. While I studied for test in the days leading up to it, I realized that I had clearly allowed the lecture material to slip away over the past few weeks without understanding it. I will try not to make the same mistake in the coming weeks. So, after the test was over I joined dozens of other BSM'ers letting off steam around the 7th district on Friday night.

Our first stop was the "basement bar." It was a tiny, smoke-filled room with a couple of tables occupied by students. There are many places like this all around the city. They are characterized by their claustrophobic interiors, disregard for second-hand smoke, and cheap drinks. Many people were drinking pints of Arany Sozok, the Hungarian Bud Light (but worse), for 200 forints, 1 dollar. I sipped on a shot of Johnnie Walker Red for 350 forints, $1.75. It was severely watered down which made it taste too-smooth-to-be-true. Later we left the basement bar to go to our old favorite, Mumus, which had just opened up its courtyard for the Spring. The Mumus courtyard was a real treat. There were many tables with heat lamps positioned alongside a long bar with a handful of bartenders. A projector displayed static psychedelic images onto the blank wall of the adjacent apartment building, casting a trippy glow over the crowd outside. Cool. Just one more reason why I love coming here.

Saturday I woke up late and went with Christy and Mike to the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art to see the Glenn Brown exhibit. Glenn Brown is an artist from the UK that I had never heard of until two months ago when prints of his paintings started appearing at tram stations advertising the special exhibit at the Ludwig. This was the last weekend of the exhibit so I wanted to go check out the guy who had the weird paintings. See for yourself.

 

Suffer Well

His paitings are full of swirls of color, providing a sense of motion to the pictures. Many of the scenes and objects he paints are surreal or futuristic, and in fact he mimicks Salvador Dali's technique and expands on it, at least that is what the brochure said. I had a great time spending a Saturday afternoon looking at pretty pictures and checking out a neat museum on the Danube. 

The Ludwig Museum

View of the Danube from the Ludwig Museum

Hey! You found me!

Sunday was election day in Hungary. Since I've arrived here I've tried to understand Hungarian politics in order to gauge how people view policy here. There are campaign posters scattered throughout the city. Hungary has a parliamentary government so there are many political parties each vying for your vote. On the sidewalk outside my apartment in the 9th district there are campaign posters on every street lamp and every kiosk. Many posters are ripped down overnight and a rival party's poster is put up the next day. I have been looking at online news and blogs about Hungarian politics to get a feel for the local political climate. A good website is www.Politics.hu. 

However, I couldn't vote and had different priorities on Sunday afternoon: cleaning my apartment and my room and finally washing a load of laundry out of desperation. For those in America reading this blog: appreciate the convenience of your huge washers AND dryers. I do now. My room now clean, my clothes now hanging on the drying rack, it was time to do some homework. I had to catch up on some combinatorics and attempt the MPS homework so I headed out with Andy to eat, study, and check out election day festivities. We stopped by the Humus Bar first to eat some falafel, then went to Deak Ter to see if we could find some political rallies. By now it was 7:30pm, thirty minutes after the polls should have closed, but all we found at the city's main square were a some couples sitting on park benches and kids rolling around on their skateboards. We went by parliament and found nothing there as well. Hmmm. We decided to find a coffee shop, do some work, and then come back and look for a rally. Of course, as we searched for the California Coffee Company, our favorite study area, we ran into the Fidesz rally in Vorosmarty Ter. There was a big TV screen and a stage set up for a band. There were about a hundred people milling around but nothing was happening at the moment. We left the rally, found the coffee shop, got our homework done, and returned to Vorosmarty Ter to catch the start of the election results on the TV. I suppose it was just our luck to run into the rally of the victorious political party. For more information on the recent Hungarian election, check out these links.

Far Right Could Gain in Hungary Elections - NYTimes.com

Hungary's Opposition Wins First Round of Voting - WSJ.com

Politics.hu - Election Digest

Index.hu (in Hungarian, but has lots of pictures. Use Google translate to read it in English)

The second time we came to the rally there were many more people. Many were waving Hungarian tri-color flags and Fidesz flags. Fidesz won the election with 52% of the vote. They are the center-right party, not to be confused with the extreme nationalist Jobbik party that I profiled earlier. Jobbik came in third place with 17% and the Socialists were second with 19%. I'm glad that Jobbik didn't do as well as some predicted, but its still scary to see an outwardly racist, anti-Roma, anti-Semetic, homophobic political party do so well in the first place. Many of their votes came from rural areas which have been hit hard by the economic recession. 

The Fidesz rally in Vorosmarty Ter

Me at the Fidesz rally

A political campaign poster for the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), a conservative Christian democratic party. Here they are comparing the other parties, MSZP (Socialists), Fidesz, and Jobbik to cigarettes. I don't think this sends the same message in Hungary as it does in America. I'm not sure about the exact translation. I'll get back to you on that.

Political poster for the winning Fidesz party. April 11 is election day. The caption reads: "Only the Fidesz!"

Andy and I stayed at the rally for a while to soak up the political fervor many of the supporters around us were expressing. As we left to go home I saw a guy selling various Hungarian pins. I wanted to buy one but many had the Trianon-era Hungarian Empire or the tural bird on them, both of which can conjure up some nationalist images. While I thought about which pin to take we met some American college professors who were looking to buy pins also. One professor asked the merchant how much for a Hungarian flag he was selling. He said that the Hungarian flag costs 2000 forints, the Fidesz flag costs 1000 forints. The market has spoken. The professors were from Nazareth College in Rochester, NY, and were looking to open up a Hungarian campus in a town near Lake Balaton. They all taught in the liberal arts and were a little shocked when Andy said that we were in Budapest to learn math. Some of them picked up a Fidesz button and stuck it on their coats. I wasn't ready to choose sides yet, so I chose a politically neutral pin with Petofi Sandor on it commemorating the 1848 Revolution. Maybe Austrians might take offense. Just don't tell the Governator. 

For more pictures of the Ludwig Museum, the election night rally, Memento Park, Paris, or Switzerland, check out my Picasa Web Album here or click the permanent link in the upper right-hand corner of the blog.

March Madness

Hey, hello! How are you? It's been a long time since I last posted anything substantial. The month of March was unexpectedly hectic with math homework and a little longing for Rudy's BBQ, but I think that's over for now. Well, the math homework will keep coming but I'm looking forward to it now believe it or not. I've been out and about around Budapest and central Europe (Bratislava!) and have a lot to share. Here is a quick rundown.

On the night of Purim, I dressed up in costume and went with Rebecca Graber to the White Angel club to go to a costume party. The party was sponsored by the Israeli Student Organization in Hungary. The club was packed and several people wore Israeli-themed costumes, such as a Bamba snack bag. I took advantage of being outside of Texas for Purim and went as a cowboy. I had my new boots and beltbuckle as well as my burnt orange UT button-down. I had to go to a costume store to rent a pathetic excuse for a cowboy hat, though I know I really shouldn't be talking. I'm not an authority on the subject. Rebekah (my cousin) if you're reading, I know. You don't have to say it. 

Hag Samay'ach and Hook 'em Horns!

The next day I went to eat a hearty Hungarian Sunday afternoon lunch at Agi Angyal's home in Buda. She is the cousin of George Fodor, a Hungarian man living in San Antonio whom I met through my Grandpa Max. Agi, her husband, and her friend treated me fantastically well. The food was delicious. It was also really cool listening to them talk about their lives in Budapest and the differences between the Hungarian and American cultures. Thanks again to the Angyal family.

Me with Agi Angyal

The following weekend I took the plunge and visited Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. I went with my roommate Andy and my friend Tao. We took the train early Saturday morning and two and half hours later we disembarked in another country. It was my first time to travel outside Hungary since I arrived in Europe in January. Overall the trip was amazing. It was full of adventure, spontaneity, and mystique. We met up with another group of BSM'ers Madav, Will, and Paul. Of course, it takes travelling between countries to see just how much cultural diversity there is in Europe. After spending two months desperately trying to learn Hungarian, I get to Slovakia and have to start from square one. Slovak and Hungarian have nothing in common; Hungarian doesn't really have anything in common with any language except Finnish and even then only a little. Plus, there is some strife between Slovaks and Hungarians from the history of the Hungarian Empire, which once extended into Slovakia. The Hungarian Empire even moved its capital to Bratislava, then Pressburg, when the Turks invaded and controlled Budapest. So not only didn't I speak Slovak, but I was trying not sound Hungarian (can you imagine?) to the locals.

Bratislava is definitely a hidden gem to Americans travelling in Europe. Its relatively small and compact with only 500,000 people. Anywhere in the old town and around the castle overlooking it is within a 20 minute walk from the nearest hostel and/or bar. We toured the Old Town, saw both funny statues and somber monuments. 

By the castle next to Old Town. The "UFO" Bridge is behind me.

Most inspiring was the Jewish Museum located in one of the last remaining original buildings below the castle. The only other original building houses the Museum of Clocks. We went there too, and it was exactly as advertised. The Jewish Museum holds hundreds of artifacts and mementos from Bratislava's once large Jewish community. There are dozens of Torah scrolls, siddurim, tallit, and Torah pointers. There were even pictures of the large synagogue with the castle in the background. The synagogue was torn down in the 1960's or 1970's along with much of the historic Jewish area of town to make way for the "UFO" bridge across the Danube. Next to the bridge at the site of the old synagogue is a black memorial to Jewish Holocaust victims and a relief of the synagogue that used to stand there. 

The museum guide directed us down towards the river to visit the Mausoleum of Chatam Sofer, who was a well known orthodox rabbi in Bratislava in the early 1800's. His sons were the rabbis of Bratislava until the 1940's. The mausoleum has been recently renovated and is housed in a new easily accessible structure just off of the main road along the river. Tao, Andy, and I walked over there and luckily found a person inside working as a guide. He told us about the history of the Bratislava Jewish community and about the history of the mausoleum. It is all that remains of the old Jewish cemetery. During World War 2 and the communist era of Czechoslovakia, many efforts were made to protect the graves. They were even entombed with a concrete shell while construction went on around it to build a tunnel for trams. The guide told us that after the war a few thousand Jews survived in Bratislava though nearly all of them emigrated after the war. Today the community has only 300 people.

After we had toured the mausoleum, we had only an hour and fifteen minutes to get back to the train station, which was a thirty minute walk away. No sweat, I thought. Let's go check out the Slavin war memorial on the way to the train station.... Not so fast, my friend! The Slavin memorial was dedicated by the Soviets to the Russian soldiers who died fighting the Germans to retake Bratislava in World War 2. The bodies of a few thousand Soviet soldiers are buried at the memorial, which is at the top of one of the tallest hills in Bratislava. While the memorial wasn't very far as the crow flies from the train station, we had to walk switchbacks through residential neighborhoods to get to it. Meanwhile the clock was ticking and we were running out of time until we had to catch the train back to Budapest. We started jogging up the hill and, exasperated, we reached the top with only 30 minutes to spare. It was worth it.

On Slavin Hill overlooking Bratislava

After 10 minutes of sightseeing, we only had 20 minutes until our train departed. Like in a scene from the Bourne Identity we ran down the hill. I glanced at my tourist map and yelled out directions to Tao and Andy, telling them to turn onto streets and go through unmarked pedestrian walkways. The sprint down the hill reminded me most a level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where you get trapped unarmed in a dangerous favela in Columbia and must sprint though houses and from roof to roof to reach your escape helicopter. It's a lot more intense in real life than on a video game I'll tell you what. Somehow, we made it down the hill and found ourselves where we had started the morning before in front of the train station. We collapsed on the station platform at 3:47pm for our 3:54pm train. At 3:51 the train arrived and at 3:54 the train left with us on it. We had escaped from Bratislava. I can't wait for the sequel.         

That was almost three weeks ago now. My weekdays are spent doing math homework and pretending to do math homework. I like all my classes and find combinatorics and mathematical problem solving especially nifty. I have, however, slacked off on my Hungarian learning. I only have Hungarian class on Monday and we had the March 15 national holiday two Mondays ago and before that I had skipped class since I wasn't feeling well. I had Hungarian class yesterday and the next two Mondays we have off due to spring break and Easter Monday. That means I'll have had one Hungarian class over a span of five weeks. Yikes. I'm going to do my part and back on the Hungarian wagon as soon as I can. Part of that involves me switching my analytical number theory class to audit. Its by far my hardest and most advanced math class. Its basically a graduate course and requires a lot of time put towards the homework and understanding the lectures, time which I don't have right now. Tomorrow I'll turn in the requisite paperwork and that'll be that. Once that is done I will have three math classes for credit, one for audit, and Hungarian for credit, which is still a decently packed schedule. I've been staying in town for the past two weekends to do homework while everyone else has bolted for weekend excursions. 

The Hungarian Parliament on March 15, 2010

I am glad, though that I was in town for March 15, which is a national holiday for Hungary and marks the start of the failed revolution against the Austrians in 1848. Its the Hungarian 4th of July and there is lots of flag waving. All the museums put on special presentations with re-enactments of events during the revolution. The thing to see, though, didn't have to do with Hungary's past. It had to do with Hungary's future. All the major political parties use the national holiday as an opportunity to put stump speeches in anticipation of the April general election, particularly the nationalist right wing party, Jobbik. We had been warned by Dezso, the BSM director, to watch out for rioting crowds and police riot controls. I had been hearing a lot about the growing extreme right wing in Hungary, which is partly based in the Jobbik political party but also in the Hungarian Guard, a citizen brigade of supporters. I rolled out of bed Monday afternoon, secured my passport on my person, and headed out to Deak Square to look for the hubbub. I found it. Too late maybe for the active demonstration in the cordoned-off street, but there were plenty of Jobbik supporters walking (or marching) with flags and banners.

By Deak Square, March 15.

Jobbik supporters with the Arpad Stripes.

The Holocaust Memorial Center had a temporary exhibit discussing the misuse Hungarian nationalist images for the extreme right wing movement. One of the images is the Arpad Stripes, which are red and white horizontal stripes. They have been used to represent the Hungarian Empire for hundreds of years, but also recently has their use invoked xenophobia and ultra-nationalism. A few hundred people in the crowd were wearing matching army fatigues and combat boots. I wasn't in any danger downtown walking around. Everyone was walking around amicably and quietly as if taking a stroll. In fact, the atmosphere seemed eerily peaceful, and a bit unnerving. I don't think there were any riots that day, but the rally was still a sight to see and I'm glad I was a witness to it. The opposition Fidesz conservative party and the smaller Jobbik ultra-right wing party are expected to win big over the ruling democratic socialist MSZP, which has been plagued with a lot of public incompetency and corruption. Yes, I am paying attention to Hungarian politics. Once you have the bug, you can't stop it. For more info, check out the Budapest Times or Politics.hu

That was two weekends ago. This past weekend was spent more light heartedly. For the first time since I arrived in Europe, Budapest had a truly gorgeous day with an afternoon high temperature of the mid 60's Fahrenheit; I couldn't let it go to waste. I finally made it out to Margaret Island to play some touch football with a few BSM'ers and some Corvinus friends. Margaret Island lies in the middle of the Danube north of parliament and is an oasis of greenery in the urban jungle that is Budapest. Its a well deserved recreation hot spot of the city. We found an open field and played some scrimmages. At first we only had five people: myself, Dan, Will, Paul, and Rebecca. After an hour and half of running around aimlessly, Kumar and Neal and ten of their Corvinus friends showed up and we played an actual pickup game. Corvinus is a university in Budapest and they offer many classes in English for international students. The BSM'ers know them since Kumar, who goes to Corvinus in Budapest, attends Denison back in America with some of the other BSM students. It felt great to play football on such a beautiful day. I hadn't had physical exercise for a while, and it showed. I'm still sore from all the running. I need to treat my body right from now on. Seriously.

Whew. A big update. Sorry for the massive blog cliffhanger this month. I'll be better at updating my journey's more regularly from now on. Promise. Scout's honor (Full disclosure: I was never a Boy Scout). I'll leave you with something to look forward to, as I am looking forward to it very much. This Friday is the beginning of spring break for us and I'm heading to western Europe. Civilization at last. First I'm taking an overnight train to Zurich, Switzerland, to stay for five days with the Schlessingers who are family friends with my mom back in day from Del Rio, TX. After that I'm taking the TGV to go to Paris to see a duo of UT friends who are studying abroad in Paris and an extra flying in from Dublin, Ireland. 

Until then, viszonlatasra. 

   In front of the Dohany Synagogue, representing Texas AEPi.