I'm here in Petach Tikvah at the offices of Shai Bar Ilan - our tour organizer. In a few minutes we'll be meeting with our guides and organizers and with the group who'll be going with us. One of the organizers - Yehuda Chen from Kibbutz Ein Tzurim was a partner on a project I worked on many years ago. It was good to see him again. He'll be coming with his wife and will be responsible for technical aspects of the tour.
Shmil Holland historian of East European cuisine and chef will be covering this aspect of our tour (and will be hosting a culinary workshop in Uzhorod).
Dr.
Shlomo Tikochinski historian of modern Jewish European history whose
specialty is in the history of Lithuanian Yeshivot. (Don't think there were any of those in Carpatho Rus!)
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| Our Planned Trip Route |
Shmil opened with an overview of the area accompanied with slides. We"ll be landing in Budapest, Hungary and moving to Slovakia - Koshitze & Preshov. From Koshitze we'll cross the border to the Ukraine & stop in Uzhorod the capital of the SubCarpathian region, the smallest province capital in all of the Ukraine.
The history of the Czechoslovakian rule is predominant in Uzhorod. From there on to Munkacs, much smaller, but with a very intensive Jewish presence.
We get a view of the Latorica River which runs through the town. From there on to Khust. From there southwest toVinohradiv (Selish). We''ll then visit the village of Veliki Komiaty where we"ll see a rare wooden synagogue which serves as a barn. From there west to Berhove (Beregsas) where the Hungarian culture reigns supreme.
"One of the problems we"ll face is the passage between the country boundaries" says Shmil.
Shlomo tells us that this area is known as the Unterland - the Carpathian - Transylvania region, a very green forest - mountain region. Uzhorod & Munkacs were central in the Jewish settlement.
In the 19th century, by the Chatam Sofer's followers from Pressburg.The other stream dominant in the area are the Chasidim, who were very influential in the region. We will also learn much about the the Streams - Orhodox - Neologs & status quo faction. We will follow the very influential Munkacser Rabbi - the Minchas Elazar in his battles against the Zionists, Neologs and other Chasidic rabbis.
Here is a more detailed description of our planned trip (in Hebrew),
Yehuda fills us in with travel details: flights, meals, weather, bus,etc.
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| Yehuda, Shlomo & Shmil |
We"ll be 19 people from all over Israel, mostly couples including the staff. Most of the people have roots in the region. Not everyone made it to the meeting.
Looks like this might be a nice trip. Will we find what we"re looking for?
