Dr. Klein-Pejsova

Having no previous knowledge of the subject, Dr. Klein-Pejsova’s lecture was very confusing and vague. Prior experience with the topic of Judaism in Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechoslovakia would have greatly helped understanding this lecture. Her main point of connecting Jews to their national identity seemed unfounded by her lecture and the slides she showed. I don’t understand how a synagogue being built in a country really relates to those Jews feeling a sense of national identity. That point seemed to be unjust in that there was really no national pride evidence in what she showed us. I thought the point about the borders being randomly selected and the effect that had on people’s lives was very interesting. It was good to know that the Jews in Europe did feel a great sense of belonging to there homelands before Israel came about. The Slovakian Jews were not tormented like other countries after the First World War, which comes as sort of a surprise to me. But the fact that this innovative Jewish nationalistic lifestyle would fall only years later highlights the importance of that time.