© Roy Botterell /Corbis
The following Friday we arrived in Budapest. Making Shabbat services here was going to be easy, we thought. After all, one of the two Progressive synagogues, Sim Shalom, was only down the street from our hotel. Street address in hand, we walked back and forth, back and forth—where was Sim Shalom? Finally, we realized the congregation had to be housed within a nearby apartment building that had an inner courtyard. There we found the temple’s call button and were buzzed inside. We walked up the stairs and into the second-floor apartment. An open room led into a second large room that had been set up for the service: two rows of chairs shaped into a semi-circle, and a small table with Shabbat candles and a Kiddush cup. Ken and I chatted with about a dozen friendly, mostly young people who spoke English, including Rabbi Katalin Kelemen, whose husband Jesse Weil, the synagogue’s treasurer, had written to me, welcoming us to Sim Shalom. Rabbi Kelemen then announced to the congregation that Ken and I were visiting from the United States, and invited me to light the Shabbat candles. What an honor, to participate in the same ritual in Budapest that I had done countless times at my home congregation in New Jersey. I immediately felt “at home.” Like at Beit Warszawa, most of Sim Shalom’s service was musical, led on vocals and guitar by Cantor Miklos Budai and accompanied on drums by a young congregant named David. Except for the melody for the Sh’ma, the songs were mostly unfamiliar to us, but we caught on and sang along. We especially loved the congregation’s version of Lecha Dodi, a catchy Chasidic melody with a “Ya ba ba ba bam” refrain that transported me into the imagined shtetl life of my ancestors. All the prayers were chanted in Hebrew, and we knew them well. The service was in both Hungarian and English, and although we didn’t understand the Hungarian readings, both Ken and I were honored with English readings, contributing to our sense of belonging. Afterwards Sim Shalom held a potluck supper in lieu of an oneg. Our contribution was a cake we’d purchased at
Turning a Vacation into a Homecoming by Gary Bretton-Granatoor
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ince the publication of Reform Judaism magazine’s first Guide to Jewish World Travel (Spring 2013), I have fielded dozens of requests by travelers wishing to visit Progressive and Reform congregations around the world. For many of them, the experience of meeting spiritual leaders and Progressive Jews abroad on Shabbat is a kind of revelation: “I am part of a wider Reform Jewish family. In 49 countries around the world I can connect with people like me who are striving to create warm, welcoming, egalitarian, pluralistic Jewish communities.” In North America we are called Reform. In other parts of the world, we are known as Progressive or Liberal (in most of Europe, if you ask for a Reform congregation, you’ll be directed to a Protestant church). How do you find your larger Progressive/Reform/Liberal family when travelling outside North America? The process is different than what you find in North America, where synagogues and Jewish institutions in North America generally have an “open-door” policy and regularly welcome visitors. In most other lands there are pervasive security concerns. Synagogues do not publish their street addresses, return phone calls or emails, or openly declare their presence. A random visitor, even one claiming affiliation
Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor is the Vice President—Philanthropy at the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
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with a Reform synagogue in the U.S. or Canada, is likely to be turned away if visiting unannounced. The best way to connect is to have the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), the institution that now serves, nurtures, and supports 1,176 Reform/Progressive/ Liberal Jewish congregations worldwide, make an introduction for you. This process takes time, so be sure to contact us several weeks in advance of your trip. First, go to the World Union for Progressive Judaism website, wupj.org. On the main page, use the dialogue box to search for WUPJ congregations by country and then city. Once you have verified the presence of a congregation in the area you plan to visit, email me, Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor (gary@wupj.org), at the WUPJ’s New York office. Provide your travel dates, where you plan to stay, when you would like to visit the congregation, the number of people in your party, and a way to contact you once you are there (to make sure you are advised of any last minute changes in the synagogue’s plans). If given sufficient time, we can try to arrange a personal visit. Connecting with your “cousins” is a great way to experience a country and a Jewish community. You’ll get insight into the challenges and the triumphs of living as a Jew in that place—and, most of all, you will see that we are all a part of one extended family.
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