- Campaign: Interview-based story-telling
- Challenge: Draw attention in a donation-dense environment
- Audience: Supporters of Jewish and Hungarian culture worldwide
“My mother was born in a Nazi work camp.” Gyuri tells me, “The camp was just outside Vienna. She was born in the last weeks of the World War.”
I learn that the family had endured beatings and torturous treatment, but somehow survived the war in that camp.
They were the lucky ones.
At just that time, in only a few months, over 400,000 Budapest Jews perished, mainly in the death camps in and around Auschwitz. the genocide was carried out at the personal, on-the-scenes direction of Adolf Eichmann.
Today, 74 years later, two young Visolyi boys, seven and nine, live a life their grandmother could not dream of. They attend public Jewish education programs at the Balint House JCC, for one. At home the family stays close to Judaism: “Every Friday evening I bless my son. The younger one is always asking on Friday evening when can he get the blessing. I always give them a blessing when they are going to sleep. I keep Pesach. It’s not easy in Hungary but it’s a good that that we can do it…”
Not far from the JCC, among the ruins of the old Jewish quarter, young people of all nationalities have set up artisanal coffee cafes, music venues, and shops.
That’s now. In between, the generations of Visolyi’s have struggled, but managed to keep the flame of Judaism alive against all odds. The family typifies the spirit that has made the Balint JCC a hub for Jewish life in Hungary, for thousands of Jewish people every month, whether affiliated or not, from every walk of life, for the very young, and for Holocaust survivors. (continues)