Texas Hillels' Hungary and Romania Trip 2012

Through the JDC, the Austin, Houston and Dallas Hillels have joined forces to send 25 students to Hungary and Romania for Spring Break to participate in community service in these regions. This will be a posting place for our adventures, photos, videos and more!

Budapest Reflection

Posted 1 year ago

Being in Budapest the past few days was a very moving experience. I learned a lot about Jews in Hungary today as well as a lot of history. I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

While at the Dohany Synagogue in Budapest there is a tree. On the leaves of the tree there are the names of about ten thousand Holocaust victims that were from Hungary. I spent some time looking at a few of the names on the tree and after a few minutes I was able to find my great grandmother’s name on the tree, Lilly Schwartz Kline. It was pretty amazing to find her name on the tree just by sheer luck. This made this trip a much more personal and meaningful experience because it meant a lot seeing my personal family history. I tried to find a few more family member’s names on the tree but there was not enough time. Hopefully I will be able to go back to Hungary one day to check out the tree again.

-Yamit L.