By: Abby Kass
During the week before February break, the TLS student population grew in size. TLS students might have wondered who the unfamiliar faces they were spotting in the hallway were. Those were students from the Lauder School in Prague, who visited TLS to learn about an American high school and Jewish community. However, the students from Prague were not the only people who benefited from their experience; TLS students also learned a lot from hosting their guests.
Vanda, a student from Prague, signed up for the exchange program as soon as she heard about it. She was so excited to be in America and loved to observe society here.
“I was surprised because we were in the city, and we needed to ask for directions for the subway,” Vanda said. “We didn’t know how people were going to react to us. But, everyone was really nice. Whoever we asked, they gave us directions.”
Moshe, another one of the students from Prague, has had a few culture shocks in America. But, he has had similar experiences to Vanda with meeting kind people.
“America is not that different from what I pictured,” Moshe said. “Everyone is really short. Also, the gaps between the toilets are really big, and why do you call it restrooms? You don’t go there to rest. But, overall, everyone is super nice, and when I walk around, everyone says hello.”
The Prague students’ school is not not as religious as TLS, but they enjoyed the rich Jewish community that TLS has cultivated.
“There are more Jews in New York than people in Prague,” Moshe said. “This school is way more religious than our school in Prague. For example, your school’s Hebrew is much better than our Hebrew.”
Not only is being exposed to an in-depth Jewish education interesting for the guest students, but they also found it fascinating to compare Jewish life in America and in the Czech Republic.
“At our school, we have much less mandatory Jewish stuff,” Vanda said. “We don’t really have Tefillah, we only have a small Tefillah on Wednesday. We also have Jewish studies as a class, where we sometimes learn about Israel. And last year, we had students from Tel Aviv visit on Yom Haatzmaut.”
Freshman Jack Kriegel is a member of one of the many gracious TLS families who volunteered to host the Prague students in their homes. These families not only hosted the students, but also incorporated these students into their home lives, helped them get to school, and educated them not just about American Jewish schools and homes.
“It’s been really cool to have these students stay at our house because they teach us about new cultures and add more activity to our house,” Kriegel said. “I’ve learned about their schooling system and how Judaism works there. It’s been exciting because I’ll likely never go to the Czech Republic so it’s cool to meet some people from there.”
