Hungary Jewish Program Even Lures Non-Jews
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A small but growing English-language Jewish studies program here is attracting students, Jews and non-Jews alike, from around Europe and places as remote as Mongolia.
Although most are drawn to the graduate program at Central European University because of its international focus and emphasis on modern Jewish history, says faculty member Michael Miller, others are clearly attracted by the opportunity to explore their newly discovered Jewish roots in a new environment.
“We get a number of students from other parts of Eastern Europe, like Poland, who’ve suddenly found out they’re Jewish, but don’t feel comfortable outing themselves back in their home country,” said Miller, an American-born and educated professor who has been teaching in the program since 2001. “It’s easier for them to do it here.”
Central European University was established in 1991 after the fall of Communism by the Hungarian-born Jewish financier George Soros with the declared aim of facilitating the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe. The Jewish studies program, which is not a separate department but a specialization within the both the history and nationalism studies department, was created in 1996 and chiefly targets students studying for their master’s degree, although it has a handful studying toward their doctorates as well.
“Jewish studies programs elsewhere in Europe tend to focus on ancient Judaism and on the Jewish history in that particular country,” said Miller.
For more, go to Haaretz
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
