Shalom Chaverim, Chag Sameach, and Shabbat Shalom,
I have just returned >from a most awesome trip to Israel (I guess they all are!!) and would like to share a few very brief impressions of my visit to the museum in Sefat.
As if there is not already enough to do and see in Sefat, the Museum of Hungarian Speaking Jews must be added to the list, especially for people such as the membership of H-SIG. The building is not large (four small rooms of exhibits if I remember correctly), and running through it as we did (with my 2 small children) I still spent 2 hours there. The themes covered include religious life, daily life, the military, the Holocaust,
etc....there are photos(one incredible album I looked through had hundreds of photos of the old shulls that existed before the Shoah), very real objects-both religious and secular, wonderful books, a video presentation, and perhaps most importantly, a staff of incredible people who were happy to show us around (I do speak Hebrew, and that may have helped a little), to point us to good sources for locating relatives, and to search the computer database for lisitngs of grave sites throughout Hungary (Louis, they mentioned that you had just been there to visit and that you got the name of every Schonfeld who ever lived in Hungary!!) For someone like me, who was not born in Hungary and who has been looking for real tangible connections to help understand where my relatives came from, this was a great place to visit (And they located 14 KASTRINER grave sites that we were unaware of!)
As with any small museum, this one could greatly benefit >from donations. ..their research room contains thousands of books(no exaggeration), with untold numbers of names and other information, all of which they would like to archive on their computers. If you can support them with a visit, its well worth it...if not, maybe by making a donation. There is no doubt in my mind, there are thousands of treasures sitting in that research room just waiting to be uncovered, but that takes time and money.
Please email me if you have any questions about our visit.
B'shalom,
Sheryl Kastriner
