L'Shana Tova

Today is Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) literally Head "Rosh" the "Ha" year "Shanah". You'll have to forgive me, but having taken Hebrew for the last two years, I like to use it when I can. (on that note - Tov means good and the a is part of the declension) Okay, so thats out of my system, now.
Four of five guys who live in Apt. 11 are Jews, so we went togehter with some of Barry's friends from Duke, as well as Rachel and Sam. The Spanish Synagogue had a Reform service so we chose to go there. This way Rachel and Sam wouldn't have to sit in the back. The service was led by a Rabbi from Stockholm, who sounded remarkably like Mel Brooks and his Czech translator. We had two siddurs, one in Hebrew and Czech, and the other in Hebrew and English. A lot of the service was very familiar, but many of the tunes were changed. It was a bit disheartening, especially if like me you are a huge fan of the High Holiday melodies. I'm sure it is no coincidence but the portion of the service that was least changed, was the Torah service. However I've always read the portion on the Sacrifice of Isaac and here it was about Isaac's birth and the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael. Of course I'm familiar with both portions and would be happy to converse about either. Seriously merely send me an e-mail, and I'll prove my Talmudic scholarship. Seriously though, it was really nice to spend Rosh Hashannah in such a beautiful and historic synagogue. The congregation was small but very friendly and they were very pleased to have a group of students there. Rabbi Mort cordially invited us to come back at 6 for Tashlich.
I promise I'll write on more secular issues, but first I would be remiss if I didn't mention the sermon. I know I've been spoiled by the excellent sermons my Rabbi at home is known for, but this was pretty crazy. He discussed the differences between faiths founded on truth and faiths founded on lies. He went on to say that a faith that asks you to kill in the name of G-d is not based on truth, and then he went right into an anti-terrorism speech specifically citing Muslims. He really needed to do a much better job distinguishing between religous extremists and the regular religous people. Most of us were a bit shocked.

Totally new topic, I've finally decided which class to drop. I've been taking 5 so far and I had to choose. I knew I was keeping Czech. And I really enjoy my Cultural History of the Central European City as well as my Modern Jewish History class (big shocks there) I was trying to decide between American Literature from a European Perspective @ Charles and Law and Human Rights in Central Europe. The reading list for the lit class had a much more interesting reading list, but was horribly inconvenient for my schedule. So I dropped Lit. Usually it wouldn't be a big deal, BUT I got an internship at the East West Institute. The EWI is not merely a think tank, but a think and do tank. I'll be working in with the Historical Archives as well as handling a few HR tasks. So very soon I will be an expert on the conferences, initiatives, and programs the EWI has done in the past. Anyway it sounds exciting to me.

Thats probably enough for now, tonight I'm taking a sleeper car to Budapest, so I'll have some stories soon.