Illustration
Photo: CD Bank
Blind love in Hungary for Jews and Israel
Blind Hungarian woman receives scholarship, fulfills dream of studying in Israel
The state of Israel grants dozens of scholarships to students around the world interested in learning in Israel. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs doesn't remember a special student as Edith Lang (28) from Hungary.
Edith is a blind woman. Although she is Christian, Lang says that, since the age of 12, she has loved Israel and Jews. "I think of Israel all the time," says Lang, telling of the pro-Israel advocacy program that she started in Hungary.
She teamed up with a number of Jewish and Israeli students studying in Hungarian universities and, during the second intifada, collected signatures on a pro-Israel petition. She also led a campaign against an anti-Semitic teacher at a Hungarian college.
Now, she is living her dream and studying in Israel. Head of the MFA's scholarship department Yuval Fischer, had a hard time getting academic institutions in Israel to accept her, who stated that they didn't have academic materials in Braille.
In the end, she was admitted to the Akiva ulpan. She has completed her studies and will receive an additional scholarship to study at Hebrew University.
Lang visited Thursday at the MFA's cultural relations branch, meeting with branch head Arthur Avnon and head of the cultural cooperation department Nurit Tinri-Modai.
