Gabor Levai and Csaba Kurti didn’t know they were Jewish until they were teenagers.
“It wasn’t uncommon for Jews growing up in Hungary to not know they were Jewish,” Levai said.
Born in Budapest, Levai was only told he was Jewish when he was a young teenager. He remembers his parents sat him down during a family lunch to tell him the truth regarding his religious background.
Near the end of high school, after the fall of communism, he had the opportunity to travel to Israel for a six-week program. The experience changed his life. He reconnected with his Jewish roots and when he returned home he attended Jewish clubs and became president of the Hungarian branch of the Union of Jewish Students (which is similar to Hillel).
Kurti also didn’t know he was Jewish until he was 12, and his parents even chose the name, Csaba, as it was a “pure Hungarian name” with no Jewish affiliation, he said.
His parents “tried to hide everything” due to rampant antisemitism. When Kurti’s mom shared the “family secret” swearing him to not tell any friends or neighbours, Kurti said he didn’t even know what the Holocaust was, let alone Judaism.
“It was not a topic that was taught in the communist era, it was not in the curriculum,” he said.
Once the communist regime fell, Kurti’s parents went back to synagogue in the early 1990s. Around this time, he began to gather other young Jews to come together for Hanukkah parties and other events, feeling an inherent and deep connection with Judaism.
Levai said his and Kurti’s paths crossed in Hungary.
Kurti formed JMPont, a Jewish community platform that included cultural programs, education, music, culinary events, and even matchmaking services, bringing hundreds of Jews across Hungary together. Levai led the Hungarian Jewish Youth Association and volunteered extensively.
Since 1999, Levai has been an entrepreneur with a focus on communication, media, and business consulting. Kurti has worked as an IT project manager and business analyst and served as the strategic director of the Autonomous Orthodox Jewish Community of Hungary.
“In both cases, community work was something we did out of love—while maintaining full-time careers,” Levai said. It was this strong history of community building that followed them when they immigrated to Canada.
When they both met in Toronto, almost 10 years ago, the same question came to both of them: “Where is the Hungarian-Jewish community here—and if it doesn’t exist, why don’t we build it?”
Levai and Kurti found that Toronto was home to many Hungarian Jews, but people often gathered in small groups; there was no central meeting hub or communal space to come together.
They wanted to change that and in 2019 they launched Memories Without Borders, an organization for the Hungarian Jewish diaspora.
The organization has put on numerous events over the years which include Shabbat dinners for friends and families to gather, excursions and cultural trips around the city, but one of their proudest accomplishments is The Senior Academy, which gives workshops, lectures, and interactive activities to Jewish and non-Jewish seniors.
During the pandemic, Kurti and Levai realized how isolated seniors had become so they began donating food weekly for three months to seniors in need, and realized that providing resources and connection to this demographic was of high-importance for their organization.
They also recently launched a rental program for equipment such as cameras, tripods, professional lighting, microphones and more to provide professional tools for community programs, educational purposes and content creation for those who may have difficulty accessing high-end equipment.
Levai and Kurti are also working on grants and sponsors to find their own physical space to work out of, right now, they rent from the Prosserman JCC, but they would like a central place to work from and put on events.
While they work towards that goal, their work is ever-meaningful, as they help foster community and engage Hungarian Jews in the city. Their upcoming Hanukkah party on December 16, will be one of their biggest events yet, with more than 100 tickets sold.
“It's very heartwarming, it feels really good (to bring people together),” Levai said. ”You know, it's still exciting when we meet a fellow Hungarian. For example, today we met someone and they said, ‘Oh, I have Hungarian roots too.’ They don’t speak the language but their mother and grandmother do. So we just invited them to the Hanukkah party. That’s when we see, this is working. We’ve built something and we can see it grow.”
Gabor Levai and Csaba Kurti didn’t know they were Jewish until they were teenagers.
“It wasn’t uncommon for Jews growing up in Hungary to not know they were Jewish,” Levai said.
Born in Budapest, Levai was only told he was Jewish when he was a young teenager. He remembers his parents sat him down during a family lunch to tell him the truth regarding his religious background.
Near the end of high school, after the fall of communism, he had the opportunity to travel to Israel for a six-week program. The experience changed his life. He reconnected with his Jewish roots and when he returned home he attended Jewish clubs and became president of the Hungarian branch of the Union of Jewish Students (which is similar to Hillel).
Kurti also didn’t know he was Jewish until he was 12, and his parents even chose the name, Csaba, as it was a “pure Hungarian name” with no Jewish affiliation, he said.
His parents “tried to hide everything” due to rampant antisemitism. When Kurti’s mom shared the “family secret” swearing him to not tell any friends or neighbours, Kurti said he didn’t even know what the Holocaust was, let alone Judaism.
“It was not a topic that was taught in the communist era, it was not in the curriculum,” he said.
Once the communist regime fell, Kurti’s parents went back to synagogue in the early 1990s. Around this time, he began to gather other young Jews to come together for Hanukkah parties and other events, feeling an inherent and deep connection with Judaism.
Levai said his and Kurti’s paths crossed in Hungary.
Kurti formed JMPont, a Jewish community platform that included cultural programs, education, music, culinary events, and even matchmaking services, bringing hundreds of Jews across Hungary together. Levai led the Hungarian Jewish Youth Association and volunteered extensively.
Since 1999, Levai has been an entrepreneur with a focus on communication, media, and business consulting. Kurti has worked as an IT project manager and business analyst and served as the strategic director of the Autonomous Orthodox Jewish Community of Hungary.
“In both cases, community work was something we did out of love—while maintaining full-time careers,” Levai said. It was this strong history of community building that followed them when they immigrated to Canada.
When they both met in Toronto, almost 10 years ago, the same question came to both of them: “Where is the Hungarian-Jewish community here—and if it doesn’t exist, why don’t we build it?”
Levai and Kurti found that Toronto was home to many Hungarian Jews, but people often gathered in small groups; there was no central meeting hub or communal space to come together.
They wanted to change that and in 2019 they launched Memories Without Borders, an organization for the Hungarian Jewish diaspora.
The organization has put on numerous events over the years which include Shabbat dinners for friends and families to gather, excursions and cultural trips around the city, but one of their proudest accomplishments is The Senior Academy, which gives workshops, lectures, and interactive activities to Jewish and non-Jewish seniors.
During the pandemic, Kurti and Levai realized how isolated seniors had become so they began donating food weekly for three months to seniors in need, and realized that providing resources and connection to this demographic was of high-importance for their organization.
They also recently launched a rental program for equipment such as cameras, tripods, professional lighting, microphones and more to provide professional tools for community programs, educational purposes and content creation for those who may have difficulty accessing high-end equipment.
Levai and Kurti are also working on grants and sponsors to find their own physical space to work out of, right now, they rent from the Prosserman JCC, but they would like a central place to work from and put on events.
While they work towards that goal, their work is ever-meaningful, as they help foster community and engage Hungarian Jews in the city. Their upcoming Hanukkah party on December 16, will be one of their biggest events yet, with more than 100 tickets sold.
“It's very heartwarming, it feels really good (to bring people together),” Levai said. ”You know, it's still exciting when we meet a fellow Hungarian. For example, today we met someone and they said, ‘Oh, I have Hungarian roots too.’ They don’t speak the language but their mother and grandmother do. So we just invited them to the Hanukkah party. That’s when we see, this is working. We’ve built something and we can see it grow.”