A Match Made in Szarvas

Barbi Pasternàk-Szendy and Andràs Pasternàk met at Szarvas, the pioneering international Jewish camp JDC runs with the help of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, in the early 1990s. Returning to the camp the Hungarian countryside as staff members in 2001, the two became close friends before beginning to date and eventually becoming engaged. For this couple whose love story is inextricably linked to their life-changing Jewish immersion experience at Szarvas, there was no better place to celebrate their union than the camp itself. For more than 100 years, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has been saving Jewish lives, building Jewish life, and transforming Jewish values into action that benefits all people in need. As the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian aid group, JDC today works in more than 70 countries and in Israel to alleviate hunger and hardship, rescue Jews in danger, create lasting connections to Jewish life, and provide disaster relief and development support for victims of natural and man-made disasters.