Education, Tradition

Shavuot Night Virtual Learning

About this project

Shavuot night is like a huge Limmud event: the Jewish world studies together, voluntarily and happily. In the two COVID years, we were limited to the online space but organized the program together with the JCC Budapest. Talking with top independent experts, we tried to determine a carefully flexible, safe, yet relatively anxiety-free lifestyle. In 2020, we tried to find out how pandemics connect to our ruthlessness towards the environment and what humans can do to have a sustainable future where humans respect nature. In 2021, we talked about the prayer Mi Shebeirach, which asks heaven for healing, epidemic prevention policies, social and individual strategies, the real message behind statistics, and social and psychological aspects of healing.

Why is it important?

In forced isolation, it was important to keep the tradition of celebrating our holidays. We still missed the magic of being together but adapted to the given circumstances by going to people's homes and bringing them common learning and relevant messages of Judaism and sciences for this situation. However, caring was even more important than shared knowledge. We also learned a lot about online presence. Not only about the technology or its disadvantages but the advantages of virtual events. We will keep the online format in the future so more people can join our events with the least amount of time and money required. At the same time, we will certainly have in-person events to ensure more opportunities than before for personal connections.

Why is it special?

In the last two years, everything has been extraordinary, and we almost long for the mundane 'boring' everyday life. If there was anything that made our Shavuot special, it was exactly that it led the community on a path toward normalcy. We managed to invite the most outstanding professionals in Hungary. It was surprising how excited they were to be invited and meet the community directly.