Global Jewish Reflections | Remembering the Magic (and Mitzvot) of Szarvas This Elul
Mason Jeffrey Marks's experience at Szarvas enriched his rabbinical studies and exposed him to a vibrant Jewish world.
By Mason Jeffrey Marks - Weitzman-JDC Fellow and HUC Rabbinical Student | August 28, 2026
Global Jewish Reflections is a recurring feature highlighting the spiritual wisdom of rabbis, Jewish educators, and others from around the JDC world.
Last year, my Hebrew Union College (HUC) classmates and I had the chance to study the history of the Jewish people, from the Bronze Age to the Soviet Union and beyond. Near the end of the year, after our exhaustive and enlightening survey, our professor took us to the lecture hall to pose the question: “What now? What is the future of the Jews?” Then, as an example of some of the work being done in our day and age, he showed us a video about Szarvas Camp, the JDC-Lauder international Jewish summer camp in rural Hungary.
This was the first time I heard about Szarvas, and watching the video I was so inspired I was moved to tears.
Throughout the 20th century, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe experienced generations of oppression, from the Holocaust to the severe state suppression and restriction of religious Jewish life in the USSR and under other communist regimes. Many families were unable to pass on the ways of Jewish life to their children, resulting in countless Jews unaware of how to “live Jewish.”
Then, in 1990, Szarvas Camp opened with a goal of helping to rectify the situation and answer the questions posed by a painful history. For the first time in generations, Jewish children in Eastern Europe had a place to learn Torah, to experience Jewish joy, to explore their heritage, and to begin their process of returning to Jewish practice and the broader Jewish community.
Just a couple of weeks after I saw the video about Szarvas, a few of my classmates and I had the opportunity to visit Budapest as a part of our participation in the JDC-Weitzman Fellowship — an innovative three-year program through JDC Entwine that aims to strengthen the value of global Jewish responsibility among HUC students. What was intended to be a three-day visit became a month and a half across Europe, waiting to return to Jerusalem due to a war that began on the third day. Our unexpected extra time in Hungary gave me the chance to meet some folks from Szarvas — an encounter that led me to apply to work there for the summer.
Ultimately, I was given the opportunity to go to Szarvas as a Jewish educator for six weeks! To spend three sessions with dozens of groups of excited Jewish youth — groups from Hungary, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and beyond — was a profound honor. I knew I’d be able to speak words of Torah with hundreds of Jewish kids of all ages from around the world.
To witness a gymnasium full of young Jews singing songs of peace and joy as loud as their voices allowed them, young people whom just decades before would’ve been persecuted for such an act, moved my heart in ways that I cannot describe. To work with kids and teens who had such a genuine interest in learning Torah and prayer was energizing. Szarvas is an outstanding example of teshuvah, of a personal and communal return to and embrace of Judaism, carried out in love and acceptance. Jews of all categories — from secular to Reform, Neolog, Orthodox, and Dati Leumi — all come together to sing, dance, learn, and celebrate what it means to be Jewish. If my professor was correct — that this is what the Jewish future looks like — then I have immense hope.
The Jewish month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, Elul, is all about return, or teshuvah in Hebrew. In the Jewish belief, each one of us is a pure soul, a neshama tehora, inherently worthy of unconditional love and respect just by the nature of our humanity itself. Each human being is made in the divine image of God, to be appreciated with grand reverence. Contrary to our inner divine images, however, our personal and societal conduct is often far from perfect. During the years of our lives we experience darkness and we make mistakes. Luckily, Judaism has a remedy! Each calendar year we have a special opportunity to return to the soul within — to engage in deep self-reflection and purification. This holy time consists of the month of Elul, along with the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.
To spend three sessions with dozens of groups of excited Jewish youth was a profound honor.
There are so many awesome mitzvot at Szarvas, and as we move through Elul into the High Holy Days, I hope for all of us to have such a happy and meaningful teshuvah as that which I witnessed from the campers and participants at Szarvas. In undertaking the spiritual work of seeing ourselves and our communities for who we are, accepting and cherishing each part, and lovingly, and joyously stewarding ourselves into a return to our higher selves, we may herald a brighter future for ourselves and our children.
My experience at Szarvas was life-changing. I am beyond grateful to all the staff, campers, and donors who make such an extraordinary place possible, and I wish you a good Elul and an amazing new year.
Mason Jeffrey Marks (he/him) is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College (HUC) and a joyous Jewish educator, community-builder, and seeker of the Divine. Originally from New Mexico, Mason has his M.A. in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked as the Director of Programs for Temple Solel in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Mason is passionate about cultivating the spiritual practices of Judaism for the modern age. Storytelling, art, friendship, and joy are at the heart of his spiritual life. As Rebbe Nachman of Breslov says, “It is a great mitzvah to be happy, always!” Mason works tirelessly to combine these principles in his Jewish teaching — check out his “Cartoon Mason” Torah videos on YouTube to see more!
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