Sunday, June 16

We will begin our journey in Budapest, discovering Hungary’s rich history. We will visit Heroes Square, originally built in 1896 in honor of 1000 years of the State of Hungary. Andrassy Avenue is a tree-lined boulevard with cafes, boutiques, the State Opera House, embassies and other important buildings. Facing the Danube River, the Hungarian Parliament Building, built in 1904, is Hungary’s largest, and Budapest’s tallest building. Fisherman’s Bastion is a 1900 terrace built on the Buda side of the Danube with breathtaking panoramic views. Liberty Statue, built in 1947, in honor of the Soviet liberation of Hungary from the Nazis, had its original inscription changed with the fall of communism.

​

Overnight: Budapest

Monday, June 17

The day will focus on Jewish life in Hungary, past and present. We will visit the Dohany Street Synagogue Complex, which includes the Hungarian Jewish Museum, Hero's Temple, Jewish Cemetery, the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park and the Great Synagogue (Europe’s largest). We will see the Rumbach and Kazinczy Synagogues and learn about the different forms of Judaism practiced in Hungary, including Neolog. We will pay tribute to the Holocaust victims at the Shoes on the Danube Bank Memorial. At the JCC, we will witness first-hand how Jewish life continues in Hungary today. At the Glass House, we will learn about Carl Lutz’s remarkable actions that saved more than 62,000 Jews during the Holocaust.

​

Overnight: Budapest

Tuesday, June 18

After breakfast, we will take a scenic drive to Bratislava, Slovakia. We will walk through Bratislava’s Orthodox Cemetery, which was established in 1845 and is still functioning today. It is also the resting place of the Ketav Sofer and the Shevet Sofer (the Chatam Sofer’s son and grandson). We will visit the Chatam Sofer Memorial, a memorial for Rabbi Moshe Sofer, who established the Pressburg Yeshiva in 1806 (Pressburg, Hungary is presently Bratislava, Slovakia). His traditional leadership prevented Reform Judaism from developing in Pressburg. We will visit the Heydukova Street Synagogue, which was completed in 1926, and is Bratislava’s only Shul to survive the Holocaust. We will take a walking tour of Old Town Bratislava, to sites of Jewish and secular interest, complete with a historic overview of Bratislava.

​

We will continue our journey with a drive to Vienna, Austria.

Wednesday, June 19

We will tour the Judenplatz, the center of Jewish life and the Viennese Jewish community in the Middle Ages. We will pay our respects at the Austrian Holocaust Memorial, initiated by Simon Wiesenthal to remember the 65,000 murdered Austrian Jews. We will tour the Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna, founded in 1896, which teaches the history of the Viennese Jews from the 14th century onwards.

We will visit the breathtaking Stadttempel Shul, completed in 1826. It is the only Viennese Shul to survive the Holocaust. The other 93 Viennese Shuls were destroyed by the Nazis.

​

Overnight: Vienna

​

​

Thursday, June 20

We will tour Schoenbrunn Palace, the 1,441 room summer home of the Habsburg family, who ruled over much of Europe from 1521 to 1918. We will pay our respects at the 9th District’s Jewish Cemetery, which functioned from 1540 until 1783. The cemetery was razed by the Nazis, but many of the tombstones were re-erected in the 1980s.

​

Closing dinner and transfer to Vienna International Airport

​

*subject to change