Education, Heritage, Youth

Judaism – Are you supposed to eat it or drink it?

About this project

"Judaism – Are you supposed to eat it or drink it?" is an online team competition of four rounds for high school students. The goal was to provide an opportunity for students to learn about Judaism in a creative, adventurous way outside the school during the pandemic researching topics like Jewish traditions, religious streams, Yiddish loanwords, the Jewish Quarter of Budapest, or the Hungarian Jewish communities of today. They can familiarize themselves with the life of Holocaust survivors, talk with young Jewish people about the diversity of identities, or ask their older relatives how they experienced the events of the last few decades.

Why is it important?

When we ask students at the beginning of our workshop to describe what they think when hearing the word Jewish, the most common answers are ‘money’, ‘religion’, ‘Holocaust’, and ‘Soros’. In our work, the original hypothesis is that the more one-sided someone sees a group, the easier it becomes for them to fall for stereotypes and prejudices. We also believe that if we get to know a group in more detail and in person, this experience can overwrite existing prejudices. The student competition aims to give students a multi-faceted image of what it means to be Jewish.

Why is it special?

We made sure that students would examine the topic of Judaism from many angles and with the help of various tools. Although participation in a competition of this magnitude for a high school team is a huge undertaking, it is also an opportunity for the participants to delve into the topic and produce reflective and creative content. It is especially important in those exercises where the students should work on their own narratives of identity and family history. The outcome is a complex learning experience that could have a long-lasting impact on how the students think about themselves, perceived differences within our society, our shared history, and Judaism.