Students traveled to the Middle East at Boston University’s Hillel House for Mizrahi Food Night. About 200 students visited the Hillel dining hall on Wednesday evening, sitting on rugs and pillows and eating ethnic dishes by candlelight.
The event, sponsored by Boston University Students for Israel (BUSI) and recurring every semester since 2008, also treated attendees to a henna artist, who decorated students’ arms and hands. Israeli-Ethiopian folk group The Idan Raichel Project played on the speakers to add to the atmosphere.
“It’s fun, the company’s great, and the set up and décor are really exotic,” said junior Carly Fitterman.
“Mizrahi” is Hebrew for “Eastern.” The menu featured featuring baked chicken with olives and lemons and beef moussaka as entrees. Sides including couscous, baked artichoke Moroccan pie, and curried zucchini.
“The food is amazing in comparison to Towers and West Campus,” said freshman Ben Suehler. “I don’t know what it was, I just know it was delicious.”
“My mother’s Israeli, and she cooks all the time, so it was like having a little piece of home,” said sophomore Danielle Hashinovsky, “though her food is better.”
The event was part of BUSI’s month-long theme of minorities in Israel. A presentation at the group’s general meeting earlier this month gave information about Arab-Israelis, Druze, Christians, and the LGBT community.
“The point is to show an important part of Israeli culture,” said junior Rachelle Rubin, co-president of BUSI. “It’s important because Israel gets caught in conflict, and in order to understand Israel, you have to understand its culture.”
Above all, Mizrahi Food Night gave students of all backgrounds a great way for to enjoy something different.
“I’m not Jewish and I’ve never been here [at Hillel] before,” Suehler said. “It brought a lot of people together. A girl invited me over to sit with her, and I even saw a friend from orientation. I would definitely come back.”
The month culminates with a screening of The Forgotten Refugees, a film about Jews who came to Israel from the Middle East and Africa, on November 30. Click here for more details.
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