brussels | Bring 420 young Jews from 32 countries to a beach in Greece, and you’ll get a mix of two things: partying and arguing.
At an event unlike any other in Europe, hundreds of young European Jewish students, aged 18 to 30, gathered recently for the celebratory European Jewish “Summer University” — an annual week of noisy debates, workshops and partying until the wee morning hours.
Now in its 25th year, the gathering is organized by the European Union of Jewish Students and aims to be a week of Jewish culture, reflection and social happenings.
Summer U. is held in a different European city each year. Participants come from large cities and small Jewish communities and include religious and secular, Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
There was so much demand for this year’s gathering in Salonika, Greece, that some last-minute registrants could not come because of a lack of space.
The event’s chief organizer, Marta Muscnik, EUJS’ executive director, says young Jews in Europe increasingly feel the need to connect to other Jews since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada three years ago.
“Students feel that they are in comfortable surroundings.” Muscnik says.
Not unlike the annual end-of-summer gathering in the United States organized by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the idea at Summer U. is to combine an educational program that enables young Jews to learn and discuss topics that are relevant to their daily life — while participants socialize and make Jewish friends across the Continent.
For some Summer U. participants, the weeklong experience can be transformative.
“Today’s global village provides us with increasing mobility, and as a result we might feel less connected to our roots,” says Gabor Fleischer of Hungary, a computer science student. “But here I make new friends across the Continent. When I travel in Europe, I know that I will always be able to crash at a friend’s house for Shabbat.”