Program Overview
(as of June 17th, 2025)
Day 1 - Wednesday, July 9th: Welcome to Budapest
12:00- 13:30 Arrival & registration
13:15 Please start walking toward venue
13:30 Opening remarks by Centropa Team and JCC Director, Marcell Kenesei
14:00 Welcome to the CSA in Budapest, Introduction to CSA in Budapest: screening the Centropa film “Introduction on Hungarian Jewish history”. Introduction to the Hungarian Jewish Source Book: What makes our Hungarian interviews so special, and how they can be used in class.
14:15 Icebreaking activity, led by Centropa staff
15:00 Introduction to Centropa - who we are, what we offer - presentation of www.centropa.org. Discussion of "scavenger hunt" pre-trip assignment.
15:30 Logistic remarks
15:40 Coffee break
16:00 Elective groups meet - introductory meeting
17:00 Check-in/change for a walking tour of Budapest
17:40 Meet in the lobby
17:45 Tour Groups Guided tour of Budapest
20:00 Welcome dinner
21:30 Participants walk back to hotel
8:00 meeting in the Hotel Lobby
8:15 Visit to the Rumbach Synagogue
9:00 Visit to Dohany Synagogue
9:30 Walking tour of the Jewish district
11:00 Arrival at venue
11:30 “Late 19th and early 20th century Jewish Life in Hungary” Lecture by Prof. Michael Miller, Head of Jewish Studies at Central European University, Budapest. With short Q&A.
12:15 Screening of the Centropa film "The Mayor Who Worked in Hell - The Story of Miksa Domonkos”
12:35 Introduction to the Holocaust in Hungary by Zsolt Vodli
13:15 Lunch
14:15 Screening of Centropa film "Love on a paper airplane - the story of Judit Kinszki"
14:35 Meeting with 3 Hungarian Holocaust survivors and Centropa interviewees
16:00 Coffee break
16:30 Reflection session
17:00 Elective group work
18:30 Free evening, dinner on your own
8:15 Meeting in the hotel lobby for a walk to the Shoes on the Danube Memorial
8:45 Participant learning activity at the Shoes on the Danube Memorial
9:45 Walk to Szabadság Square to the 'Memorial for the Victims of the German Occupation' and the ‘Living Memorial’
10:15 Bus transfer to venue
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Welcome remarks by András Zima, director of the Holocaust Documentation Center and Museum
11:20 Participants will explore the Museum on their own.
12:00 Panel discussion on "Holocaust Remembrance and Education in Europe, US and Israel".
13:00 Introducing the National Fund Exhibition, after which participants will explore the exhibition on their own
13:30 Lunch
14:30 Buses will take us to Memento Park, an open-air museum dedicated to monumental statues and sculpted plaques from Hungary's Communist period (1949–1989)
15:15 Short introduction and on-site scavenger hunt.
16:15 Bus departs back to the hotel
17:00 Preparing for the evening
18:00 Bus depart for the synagogue
18:30 Shabbat service
19.30 Departure for dinner
19:45 Shabbat dinner
21:30 Participants walk back to the hotel on their own
8:15 Meet at hotel lobby for those who would like to walk together. Otherwise, walk to venue on your own
9:00 Participants arrive at venue
9:15 Reflection session
9:45 Panel discussion on “Hot Topics in Teaching” with CSA teachers. US, Serbia, Israel, Romania, Germany
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Marketplace of ideas: Veteran teachers present their successful projects. 15 minutes per presentation. Participants get to choose which projects they want to learn more about
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Elective group work. Continue designing your lessons.
15:30 Introduction to the CSA in Serbia and Centropa in the Balkans — Screening of “El Otro Camino”. Sephardic Jewry Presentation
16:30 Logistic remarks
16:45 Walk back to the hotel
17:00 Free evening (don’t forget to pack and buy snacks for the road trip on the next day)
Travelling day - NOTE: Keep your passport handy, as we will cross the border from Hungary to Serbia
8:00 Check out of hotel
8:30 Buses depart from hotel
12:00 Visit of the Jakab and Komor Square Synagogue in Subotica, Serbia. Built in 1901-1902 and originally serving the Hungarian Jewish Neolog community, it is one of the finest surviving pieces of religious architecture in the art nouveau style.
13:15 Lunch in Subotica at the local Jewish community center
14:15 Bus transfer to Belgrade
17:00 Check in to Belgrade hotel
Free Evening
8:15 Screening of the “Three Promises” Centropa film in the Hotel’s conference room
8:30 Tour Groups Starting point Hotel: Walking tour of Jewish Belgrade and in the footsteps of the Kalef family combined with Haver Srbija tour
10:30 Bus to wait near the former hospital and we drive to Staro Sajmiste, which was the site of a Nazi concentration camp from 1941 to 1944
11:00 Arrive at Staro Sajmiste. Toilet break & Refreshments and greetings by the representative of Staro Sajmiste Memorial
11:30 Guided tour with Milovan Pisarri
13:00 Buses depart from Staro Sajmiste to the synagogue (visit to Dajc family stolpersteine)
13:45 Buffet kosher lunch at Synagogue. Buffet lunch at Synagogue and conversation with the Rabbi and Haver Srbija representative
14:45 Tour of the synagogue
15:15 Walk to conference venue
Refreshments
15:30 Reflection session on Staro Sajmiste and Belgrade Jewish life
15:45 Introduction to Holocaust Education in Serbia
16:00 Serbian teachers on Centropa films (Specifically the Kalef film in Holocaust Education)
16:45 Coffee break at the Conference Venue
17:00 Book Discussion (both books)
17:45 Logistic remarks
18:00 Elective Group Work. Last full hour to work on the lesson (Coffee will be available.)
19:00 Free evening
8:15 Meeting in the hotel lobby
8:30 Bus transfer to Sephardic cemetery where we visit the memorial for Jews who fought for Serbia in the Balkan Wars and World War I, the Kladovo transport memorial, and the Holocaust memorial.
09:00 Visit of the cemetery and memorials with tour guides
10:00 Bus transfer to conference venue
10:30 Meet in conference room for coffee break
10:45 Prof. Dragana Stojanovic (Shoa Laboratory, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory), Culture of Remembrance in Serbia. Followed by a short Q&A
11:45 Screening of Centropa film “Survival in Sarajevo”, the story of La Benevolencija, an humanitarian aid organization and community center consisting of Holocaust survivors and members of different religions that sprang up to help people of all backgrounds who were trapped in Sarajevo during the siege of April 1992 to February 1996
12:15 Panel discussion with teachers and civil society NGOS on “Threats to democracy and social movements: guiding students in a time of democracy under threat”
13:15 Lunch at Hotel
14:00 Final opportunity to work on elective lessons
15:00 Final Presentations of elective lessons and videos
16:30 Coffee Break
17:30 Feedback session. Teachers fill out an online survey, followed by group discussions of the CSA experience.
18:30 Time to get ready for final dinner
19:30 Final Dinner at a restaurant
participants depart.
If you would like to have more information about our educational programs, please contact:
Fabian Rühle develops programs and runs seminars for schools all over Europe and Israel, and writes grant proposals for Centropa. Fabian emigrated from East Berlin to West Berlin in 1988. He has an M.A. in American History from Rutgers and the Free University of Berlin. Before joining Centropa in Vienna, Fabian worked for the American Jewish Committee in Berlin.
Dr. Lauren Granite directs our US educational programs. Before joining the Centropa staff, she spent more than a dozen years teaching Jewish history in colleges, Jewish day schools and congregational schools. As a teacher, Lauren created our first cross-cultural projects with Berlin and Budapest. And since 2010 she has been building our network of Jewish day and congregational schools; expanding into public, parochial and charter schools; running workshops and seminars; mentoring teachers; writing lessons and projects; and establishing teacher advisory teams to advise us about Centropa curricula.
Dr. Maria Lieberman studied Russian Language and Literature and Art History at ELTE (Hungary) and holds a PhD in the same subjects. She is passionate about informal education and Jewish heritage, and one of her core values is to preserve Jewish communities and heritage for the future. She has joined Centropa in 2022 as director of the Budapest office, overseeing our Hungarian and Jewish school programs.
