Hello from Hungary: Budapest's Jewish Quarter || Remembering for Reconciliation

Ghetto Memorial Wall, Budapest, Hungary
June 2019

There are so many feelings but so few words to express them.

We were standing on the bank of the Danube this time last year. And one year later, we are living a new, surreal reality - a new "normal." The pain, grief, and burdens that our brothers and sisters carry in their bones, passed down like genes, ought not to be normal. You can feel it, can't you? Deep within your core, the invisible but deadly things that are destroying our world -  be it germs, capitalistic greed, or the sin of racism - are not right. We're divinely anointed with an innate sense of "what ought to be." We know this isn't it.

I'm ill-equipped to say much (if anything at all). I've been taking the past week to listen to voices I sadly haven't paid enough attention to and engage those around me in tough, but necessary, conversations. Strengthening spines and softening hearts is a process. Racism is a pervasive, chronic condition with acute stressors. It's an offense that demands responses to manage both the ongoing and the flare-ups. I'm learning to address the dirt under my own nails and the darkness I harbor in my own heart, and if you'd like to join me in lifting up stories that deserve more ears, here are some racial reconciliation resources to begin with:

• Good Good Co: Antiracism Resources
• New England Food Solutions: 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
• NPR: Codeswitch
• NYT: The 1619 Project

There is no blueprint for what we ought to say and do - if there was, discrimination would've been blotted out long ago. But if we're to live a new normal, there's no better time to reinvent our societal structures in pursuit of His will to be done, here on Earth as it is in heaven. 

A note: something that's made me sad are intimations that if you don't say something online, you don't care. The reverse, that you have to post something immediately to express your concern, leads me to feel similarly. "Digital silence" doesn't mean complete passivity. Our online platforms are wonderful tools, but I sincerely hope that we remember there are additional ways to engage with privacy from social media, too. Change starts in our hearts and in our homes, manifesting ultimately in the communities and institutions around us. We can actively listen and speak out appropriately in other ways. It's tough when we're physically isolated, but I'm confident we're creative enough to find or invent strategies to participate sensitively and safely in constructive dialogues for change.

Shoes on the Danube Bank

...

Budapest's Jewish Quarter bears physical reminders of historical atrocities. Walking through, I felt a tension between the traveler's fascination of novelty and the discomfort of remembering pain I didn't experience and could never fully understand. But discomfort isn't something to run away from. In fact, it's exactly what we need to recognize and process. If you find yourself in Budapest, go wander through the design shops and crawl the ruin pubs in its Jewish Quarter. But make time to visit memorials, open yourself to share painful memories, and remember the Holocaust, too.

Szimpla Kert