VOICES OF CONGREGANTS

Laura Raden

Laura is a student at George Washington University who spent the spring semester in Prague. She is the daughter of Buddy and Irene and the grand daughter of Sam and Bernice. She sent this letter.

Dear Rabbi Robbins,

It has completely slipped my mind to give you an update on our Passover progress. Three girls and I went to the Seder of one of the congregations that you suggested, Hatikvah. It was a wonderful experience that we will never forget.

The congregation is DIY- there is no rabbi and members of the 120 person congregation voluntarily do things that are necessary to make a congregation run. The man who lead the Seder had also lead Shabbat services every Friday night for 8 years until he didn't feel like it anymore and another guy took over. We did not have a full meal for Seder, but a woman in the congregation took the initiative to get the food and individual Seder plates together.

It seems as though, from what I gathered, that no rabbi in Prague would want to be a part of this congregation because many of the members come from mixed marriages or were not born Jews. The Jewish community of Prague seems to be a very exclusive group that does not let everyone in. This completely made me appreciate the community that I grew up in, which accepted anybody who wanted to be a part of our religion in some capacity, a fact that I take for granted.

Needless to say, the Congregation was shocked as to how we could have possibly found them and were a bit confused about who this Rabbi Robbins is. That night we became sort of like the celebrities of the Seder. Everyone was so curious about us and kept asking us a ton of questions about where we were from and what our congregation is like back home (I had to break it to them that ours was slightly bigger then theirs).

The point of this email is to thank you for helping me find this congregation. The experience was so special and eye-opening and, as I said before, I will never forget it.

I hope that you had nice Seders and are enjoying your Passover.

All the best,

Laura

On Jewish Life
Laura Raden