Jewish faith after years of Communism and the Holocaust.
The Budapest based "Open University for Jewish Studies in Hungary" wants to attract people "who are interested in re-discovering Judaism," said Rabbi Boruch Oberlander in an interview with BosNewsLife.
"We already have about 50 students. Most of them are between 30 and 50 years of age and children of parents who narrowly survived the Holocaust, or whose grandparents died in concentration camps," he said.
An estimated 600,000 Hungarian Jews are believed to have died during World War Two, when Hungary for the most part supported Nazi Germany. Orthodox Jews also suffered because of religious persecution during the post-war Communist regime, stressed Oberlander.
ORTHODOX
"This Orthodox open university would have been impossible even 15 years ago," he explained. With support of an Israel based fund and other organizations, the university is also distributing what is believed to be the first Hungarian translation of parts of the Talmud, an ancient text in which rabbis discuss aspects of the Jewish faith about 1800 years ago. In addition the Code of Jewish Law will be among the translated Jewish documents, said Oberlander.
During the first semester, students will focus on issues such as Jewish marriage and the first book of the Biblical Moses. Despite new freedom to openly express their faith, Oberlander does not expect many religious Jews who fled to return to the former Communist nation.
"The (situation) of Judaism here in Hungary is not at the same level as New York, Antwerp, Paris or Amsterdam," noted Oberlander. Hungary’s Open University for Jewish Studies" opens its doors shortly after the country officially inaugurated its first Orthodox rabbi since the Holocaust.
"BROWN HAIR"
Rabbi Shlomo Koves, who is also part of the university, told ANS earlier that he only discovered at the age of 12 that being Jewish meant more "than having brown hair or blue eyes," as his family did not speak about it much before.
While students will receive some higher education certificate, Rabbi Oberlander stressed that their "most important graduation will be that they can practice Judaism anywhere in the world."
Oberlander hopes his Judaism teachings will eventually reach many of the estimated 100,000 Jews living in Hungary, the largest Jewish community in Central and Eastern Europe after the former Soviet Union.
