CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Pál, Borbála |
|---|---|
| Title | (Re)creating diaspora? The impact of Taglit-Birthright Israel on Hungarian participants |
| Summary | The present thesis aims to discover how Taglit, the Birthright program of Israel impacts its Hungarian Jewish participants. The Hungarian Jewry forms a special case for diaspora studies, as it can not even be considered as a diaspora; having a long tradition of assimilation, young Jews today lack any connection to Judaism and the State of Israel. Through a semi-structured interview research with Hungarian Taglit alumni, the thesis aims to discover how the trip impacts this Jewish identification and practices of participants, as well as their relation to Israel. Although Taglit is a well-researched program, impact assessments almost exclusively focus on North Americans; therefore this thesis also contributes to the understanding of the experiences of a so far neglected group. The findings of this research are that Taglit is successful in making participants’ Jewish identity more significant, meaningful, and positive; it also fosters youths to adapt symbolic forms of ethnicity after their return, and generally brings Israel closer to them. The study concludes that by making their Jewish identity more meaningful and orienting them towards Israel, Taglit-Birthright has a diaspora-creating impact in case of the Hungarian Jewry. |
| Supervisor | Kovács, András; Pogonyi, Szabolcs |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/pal_borbala.pdf |
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