New Friends

Later in the day we visited students studying at Humboldt University as part of the Leo Baeck Summer Institute. There were students who are studying Jewish Studies in Germany post-WWII. They are from all over the world and may are not Jewish, a huge surprise to me!

I first started talking to this guy, Mihai, who is not Jewish and from Romania. He told me he is studying in Bucharest and is from a "touristy" town on the Black Sea. I told him my father's side of the family is from Romania but left well over 100 years ago. He said they probably left between 1880 and 1902 because there was a large wave of Jewish emigration then. Hmm, yea, I thought. Has to be! Then I said my last name is Foreman and he said, "yes, Fuhrman - I do know someone whose last name is Fuhrman in my town and he is Jewish. How totally funny. I wonder if we are related. The best part was that I found out that he is studying anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, at which point, my eyes lit up and I told him that I work for ADL. He seems so cool - I was blown away. After he finishes his degree in Bucharest, he wants to study in Israel.

I also met another student named Karol, who is a Polish Catholic studying International Affairs. I asked him if what was said was true, that there is a lot of anti-Semitism in Poland. He prefaced it by saying that he is not a patriotic Polish person, who was raised Catholic, but now denounces Catholicism. He said that anti-Semitism is very much classic anti-Semitism and people hold many typical anti-Semitic stereotypes. People deny it, but it still happens in the classic sense (Jews are cheap, rule the world, big noses, etc., etc.). He said that even though the Nazis orchestrated the Holocaust, the Poles had a lot to do with what happened. I asked, "they were the tools?" and he said, "yes, well, more. They took the initiative." He said even after the Holocaust when Jews came back to Poland to reclaim their homes and property, there were terrible pogroms.

I later asked him why he denounces Catholicism. He said that he doesn't like that the Priesthood is Celbate, and that this frustration causes pedophilia. Interesting theory. He says it is a hypocritical, chauvinistic religion. He doesn't like that women are seen as workers and not equals. Really incredible and intelligent guy. A little on the liberal side, though...