I Have a Dream

I am at Terminal 3 of Ben Gurion Airport waiting to board a special direct flight to Oradea, along with many other Jews from there. We land after about 3 hours, full of anticipation for the long weekend ahead of us. It's a beautiful spring afternoon in 2015. We get on the buses waiting to take us to our hotel in town. We all check in, meet some others in the lobby. They arrived from the US, Germany, Hungary and even Australia. I tour the facility just to make sure all is in place and running on schedule: the registration desk, the convention hall, the big banner outside the hotel and in the hall. I am so excited, I can't fall asleep and decide to walk along the Koros river.

Day One: Introduction
Next morning, right after breakfast, the name tags are all neatly arranged on the registration desk, waiting for the crowds. People start walking in, get their tags and convention program, hang around the coffee and morning pastries, chit-chat and finally enter the convention hall. The Master of Ceremony opens the event. The first speaker is Oradea's mayor. He welcomes us and speaks about the linkage between past and present, about the Jews' contribution to the city's cultural and economic life. Then, the representative of the local Jewish community speaks. He mentions preservation and cultural activities of the community. The MC hands the microphone to attendees to introduce themselves, tell us about their linkage to Oradea, their current city and whatever else they want us to know. We spend the morning getting to know each other. The afternoon siesta is followed by a welcome cocktail party with live music and great food, in a beautiful Art-Nouveau style ballroom.

Day Two: Yizkor 
The next morning, we gather again in the convention hall to listen to scholars presenting the history of the Jewish community of Oradea, followed by a Holocaust memorial service conducted by former Zion Temple cantor Yossi Adler, at the Holocaust monument.
Day Three: Fun
The third day is packed with fun. In the morning there is a guided tour, where our spouses and family members and even the hard-core Oradea-born attendees discover the city. We all learn something new, take pictures and recall old memories from school, neighborhood and community activities. The afternoon is dedicated to music. First, we listen to local talents (for example Kovari Kati, Alexandrina Chelu) and the community choir, then to piano concerts given by [ex-]Oradea pianists attending the event (Roth Andris, Vogel (Grunberger) Nadia and Hausmann Gyuri come to mind). Finally, we all have fun by singing along with current and old-time community choir members. We finish the evening by singing Hatikvah.

Day Four: Grand Finale
The fourth and last day morning we spend out of town, at the Felix thermal baths. The event ends with a  gala dinner, music, dancing and great atmosphere.

The entire event is documented and the resulting pictures and videos uploaded to the Oradea Reunion (Varadi Talalkozo) Facebook page.

Do you share my dream? Would you like it to come true? Then, let's speak about reality. In reality, behind such an event there is a lot of hard work. I know because I planned professional conventions in the past. I am not yet sure I'm prepared to do this. However, here are a few starter needs that came to my mind:

• Energetic person who lives in Oradea, with excellent organizational skills and ties to city council and Jewish community
• Contact with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania 
• Contact with the Lempert Foundation (couldn't post a message)
• Contact with the Avichai Foundation (didn't get back to me) to obtain their list of invitees to the 2005 event
• Israeli travel agent to organize flight, accommodation and transportation
• Media person to get the Israeli and local media interested in the event (press, TV, documentation, sponsorship)
• Volunteers to maintain the contact list (I have a starting list of about 340 people and couples) 
• Volunteer treasurer.

I'm sure this is a very partial list.

So what say you?