Tracing Jewish Heritage Along the Danube
Like many who share my hair texture and fondness for rugelach, I am the descendant of Jewish forebears who boarded boats in the first half of the 20th century to escape bad times for our people in Central and Eastern Europe. These intrepid emigrants took to the water, settled in America and built a Jewish-American culture of creative assimilation. I owe them my life.
Like about a third of the 120 or so fellow travelers with whom I spent seven nights on the Danube River last November, I boarded a boat called the AmaPrima in Budapest to float back to some of the same places so many of those same emigrants were — history has confirmed — lucky to leave behind. I was bound on a Jewish heritage tour, combining two growing travel trends: roots and rivers.
In my case, the combination was a special-interest option laid over a popular Danube itinerary that AmaWaterways has been offering since the company entered the river-cruise market in 2002. On the water, we were all in the same boat as it powered from the Hungarian capital of Budapest to Bratislava, Slovakia; Vienna, Linz and Salzburg, all in Austria; and, finally, Regensburg and Nuremberg, in Bavaria, Germany. . .
The Danube Discovery Tour is one of 12 Danube-based itineraries offered by AmaWaterways. In addition to Jewish Heritage, other themed cruises specialize in subjects like wine, beer, jazz, Christmas markets and knitting. All itineraries offer optional pre- and postcruise land-based tour extensions.
In the competitive river-cruise sector, other cruise companies offering Jewish heritage tours include Viking River Cruises, Uniworld and Avalon Waterways.
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