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Friday March 30, 2007

Students abroad often adrift at Passover

by dinah a. spritzer
jta

prague | Seth Fiegerman ambles through one of Europe’s most alluring Jewish quarters each day on his way to school.

The tilting headstones of Prague’s Jewish cemetery and sawtooth gables of the medieval Old New Synagogue have awakened his Jewish identity during his college semester abroad at a New York University campus in the Czech capital.

Still, Fiegerman, 20, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., hasn’t made any plans to attend a seder, even though it’s weeks away.

He also has made no contact with local or expatriate Jews since coming here in mid-January, despite his daily sojourns past the Prague Jewish community headquarters on Maiselova Street in the Old Town.

“I am a foreigner and don’t feel comfortable walking into a room of strangers,” Fiegerman said. “I view Judaism more as a family tradition than religion.”

Since his family is far away, so is the promise of gefilte fish and the Four Questions.

The same may be true for many young Jews studying abroad who aren’t especially observant, but do celebrate major Jewish holidays when they’re home.

There are no estimates of the number of Jewish students studying abroad, but Aaron Goldberg, director of the international division of Hillel: The Foundation for Campus Jewish Life, said large numbers of Jews are choosing international study, and that Fiegerman’s experience is typical.

“American students often lack an understanding of Jewish life abroad,” Goldberg said.

In addition, the local Jewish communities often are not aware of the students’ existence.

“I didn’t know there were so many there, or any at all,” said Jakub Roth, vice president of the Prague Jewish Community, when told that a significant proportion of the NYU students in Prague were Jewish. “Now that you tell me, we will try to reach out to them.”

Fiegerman and other students provide plenty of examples about how easy it is get lost in the Passover shuffle.

Michael Cavayero, a sophomore from Woodbury, N.Y., said he would be interested to see how Czechs mark the event. Still, he said, without an invitation, most students are unlikely to show up alone at a Passover meal with people they don’t know.

Whitney Portnoy, an NYU in Prague student from Melville, N.Y., said she has done nothing Jewish-related in Prague, where there are about 1,500 members of the Jewish community, in contrast to 1.7 million in New York.

If Portnoy does anything for Passover this year, it likely will involve creating a paper seder plate with friends and downloading a Haggadah from the Internet.

If American Jews do join a Czech event, Roth said, they should be prepared for a different culture and people who are more reserved than what they’re used to.

“When you come the first time, people are not going to be running up to you and telling you how glad they are that you showed up,” he said. “Czechs are a bit different than Americans.”

Even in an era of Voice Over IP, YouTube and Web cams, person-to-person contact remains the essential element behind ensuring that young people celebrate the Jewish holidays.

“I want to see the shankbone shining in the window and wander into the room where I am welcomed,” Fiegerman said. “But I am not going to look for it myself.”

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