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American students bring Thanksgiving's message of coexistence to the Middle East
This Thanksgiving, holiday traditions and messages are going farther than the family dinner table. In fact, they are going all the way to the Middle East as American young adults spending time abroad will be spreading the message of coexistence throughout diverse communities by recreating the Thanksgiving feast from their childhood.Masa Israel Journey, a project of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Government, sends more than 6,000 young Americans to Israel each year to study, intern, and volunteer, as well as spread a peaceful and harmonious message. Diverse groups of people such as Arabs, Israeli Jews, Palestinians, Europeans, and American peers are all positively affected by the introduction and blending of Thanksgiving traditions.
Some examples of how American young adults have spread their traditions and the message of coexistence include:
- Abra Berkowitz, a Boston-native who studied at Masa Israel's Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, shared a potluck dinner with other students from Jordan, Isreael, the Palestinian Territories, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. A blending of cultures could be seen by a turkey seasoned with zaatar and a side dish of tahini stuffing.
- Detroit-born Josh Kanter, who enrolled in Masa Israel's Career Israel internship program, celebrated Thanksgiving at a Herbrew University-sponsored dinner with other international students from Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, Israel, and the United States. While there was turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, hummus was also a big hit at the table.
- Jessica Simon from Philadelphia, who studied at Masa Israel's Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, was also volunteering at Jerusalem Open House, the organization that supports LGBT people and their allies in Jerusalem. She planned a Thanksgiving potluck and read from a gay friendly prayer book with Hebrew explanations about Thanksgiving to the Israeli attendees. Because sweet potatoes were not available, Simon substituted them with carrot soup.
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Festivals and Events, Food and Drink, Stories, North America, Israel, United States, Consumer Activism, Middle East, Women's Travel
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jessica Nov 28th 2011 9:25PM
Shout out to Abra, hope you're still rocking the Arava and getting into trouble.
To the writer of this piece, some factual errors. I didn't plan the dinner by myself, and I didn't read from the gay-friendly prayerbook, my co-planner did. The sentence after that doesn't even make sense. To clarify, I was trying to explain to the few Israeli attendees who spoke very little English. The difficulty of trying to find a Hebrew way to talk about pilgrims, puritans, the Mayflower," or Native Americans was really a lost cause with my Hebrew-speaking skills. Also, sweet potatoes were available. And I didn't make the soup. My friend did. And it was carrot/sweet potato soup. I don't know how the writer botched up what I sent in so badly, but in any case, it was a good and interesting thanksgiving. Then I wrote a poem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guzxJUFgxQk
Abra Berkowitz Nov 30th 2011 3:58AM
Hey Jessica! K'halec? Manish ma? I'd also like to add that although I personally was fortunate to receive funding from Masa, Masa should not be considered to have ownership of the Arava Institute program, as the blog implies. The Arava gets funding from a number of organizations, Masa being one of them. It remains an independent program, however, with independent-minded faculty, staff members and students..