In Central Europe today Budapest has the largest Jewish community, with 22 synagogues and prayer houses, secondary schools, a hospital, and two homes for the elderly. But what does it mean to be Jewish living in this historic city and how has the community fared?

In July, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield led the Philadelphia Leadership Training Institute to Budapest, to explore what it means to be Jewish, the shifting parameters of Jewish community, and the incredible opportunities brought with those changing realities.

“No where other than America have I experienced a Diaspora Jewish community as deeply patriotic as the Hungarian Jewish community,” said Rabbi Hirschfield. “They feel both deeply Jewish and very Hungarian.”

For several participants on the trip this was surprising, as they assumed, like many contemporary Jewish leaders, that issues of anti-Semitism and the fragility of Jewish life would be uppermost in the minds of the Hungarian Jewish leaders with whom they met.

“We found people whose willingness and excitement about the integration between ‘Jewishness’ and ‘Hungarianess’ was much like what members of our group most hoped for in American Jewish life — a place where Jewish pride, Jewish wisdom, American freedom and openness can all be brought together,” said Rabbi Hirschfield.

The group left Budapest feeling that it had begun relationships with people with whom they should be in ongoing conversation about what it means to create community and nurture Jewish life when you love where you live.

By Judy Epstein from Clal