Jerusalemites: Borcsa's story

Borcsa comes from Hungary. She is a tour guide of the Jewish Quarter in Budapest.
She is participating in a Masa program in order to assimilate to Israel which she is considering as her future home.

“I specialized on the Jewish quarter in Budapest. There are a lot of Israelis. Once I met a religious couple from Jerusalem. The funny thing about every religious couple is that they always try to do ‘shidduch’, matchmaking. They got to know my friend who they wanted to ‘match’ me with… Apart from studying tourism in Budapest I spent one year learning Jewish studies in Sweden at ‘Paideia’ – The European Institute for Jewish Studies. After my graduation I came back to Budapest and spent last Pessach there. During the holiday we say “Next year in Jerusalem” so… here I am and even before Pessach! I feel now like a ‘Jerusalemite’  although it wasn’t my favorite city. What a funny coincidence. The city forced me to be a better person – Jew though I am not observant. I began to understand how meaningful Shabbat is, that is obviously impossible to sense in Budapest where on Friday night everyone goes partying. Do you know when I got connected to my Jewish ancestry? In 2009 I went on a Taglit trip to Israel and ever since I started learning more and more about my identity. So eventually I became a tour guide of the Jewish neighborhood and right now I am thinking of moving to Israel..."

What’s on your mind?
"Let’s meet next year in Jerusalem!"