Tu B'Shvat Blooms in Budapest
By Adam Schonberger, Coordinator of Marom Budapest

On Saturday evening, February 11 the third annual Marom Budapest Tu B'shvat Festival took place at Club Godor in Erzsebet Square. We organized this festival with the Green Jung Organization and the Stetl Cultural Society.

The first part of the festival was a panel discussion about the limits of freedom. We spoke about the relationship between Judaism and ecology, questioning the concept of freedom, opportunities and limits. The participants were Gabor Balazs philosopher, Benedek J?vor ecologist, Laszlo Seres editor, journalist, Gabor Csillag,  cultural anthropologist and approximately 50 young adults.
After the panel discussion, many more people arrived for the concert. It was a great success. The Udrub and the Ha'gesher group put on a wonderful production; most of the people danced and everyone enjoyed the music and the atmosphere.

After the concert, there was a party with approximately 1000 participants. We continued until almost 5:00 a.m.!
The Marom UK group was here for the weekend, so we celebrated Tu B'shvat together. It was a great opportunity to show them how we organize this kind of program for Jewish young adults in Budapest, and they really enjoyed it.

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Marom UK-Budapest Seminar a Success
by Assael Romanelli, Masorti Shaliach to UK
The Marom UK – Budapest Seminar took place from February 10-12 (Shabbat Shira) with eight participants from Marom UK, four from Marom Prague and a large number of Marom Budapest participants in different activities. We officially started on Friday afternoon with a short tour of the Dohany shul (the second largest shul in the world) and a general introduction to Hungarian Jewry.

We had our own Kabbalat Shabbat service, dinner and Oneg Shabbat at the home of Adam Schonberger, coordinator of Marom Budapest. We enjoyed a great dvar Torah and a fun Oneg together.

The next morning we joined the Heroes shul for Shabbat services, followed by a Tu B'shvat seder. We ate lunch at the kosher food house called Hanna’s and continued our tour of Hungarian Jewry through the different streams over the years (Neolog, Orthodox, status quo). That afternoon we had a study session with Doron Rubin from Israel (chairman of Marom Olami) and a session on Israel with Alex Stein. We also had a discussion about Marom Olami’s vision and direction and a short session with the local Hagshama representative, followed by havdalah.

Saturday night we participated in a 600 people strong Marom Budapest event, which was a great success and joy for all.

On Sunday, we took a half-day tour of Budapest with Eva Vadasz, Marom Budapest member, and concluded with a summary and feedback session at lunch.

The participants really enjoyed the seminar, but felt that the seminar was too short and they would have liked more time to meet other participants and spend more time with local Marom members. All the participants felt that there is a definite interest in meeting together and that these seminars are of great value and importance.

I would like to thank Mr. Roni Tabick, Mr. Dave Goldman, Mr. Adam Schonberger, Ms. Eva Vadasz, and Ms. Andrea Ausztrics for all their help in planning and executing the seminar. I wish to thank Mr. Doron Rubin and Mr. Alex Stein for running sessions in the seminar. I also want to thank Mrs. Magda Vadasz and everyone at Bnei Brit Hungary for their generous help with the room (and help finding a bus). I wish to thank Hagshama Hungary for their support and help with the seminar. Finally, I want to thank Mr. Udi Givon and Mrs. Avigail Ben Aryeh and everyone from Masorti Olami for supporting and helping this important seminar.

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