Jewish Geography: Food Edition
Sophomore Benji Mitrani has fair skin, red hair and a Jewish heritage — but for Jewish Student Union’s food geography night, he made the Cuban dish arroz con frijoles, or rice and beans.
His father’s family is from Havana, where there was a large population of Jews during the 1950s and 1960s. Now, most of them have immigrated to the U.S., said Mitrani, a special education major.
“I called my grandmother for the recipe, and she was really happy that I am keeping the heritage alive,” Mitrani said.
The Jewish Student Union hosted Jewish Geography: Food Edition last night at Hillel, a Jewish student group. The event invited students from various Jewish heritages to share their traditional recipes and cultures with others.
All recipes were kosher and cooked in a kosher kitchen, and students were challenged to complete their paper passport by filling up their plate with foods from every country represented, including Mexico, Venezuela, the Czech Republic, Israel, Guatemala and the United States’ “down South.”
“A lot of the American Jewish food, people would know, especially the Eastern European Jewish foods,” JSU President Hailey Siller said. “But a lot of what we have at this event is South American foods.”
Many Jews from Cuba are Sephardic Jews, Mitrani said, meaning they originated from the region in and around Spain. His family now lives in Miami, where many Cuban-Americans immigrated, but his grandparents speak Ladino, a unique mix of Hebrew and Spanish.
“It’s like the Jewish-Spanish Pig Latin,” he said.
Sophomore Andrea Picciotto, whose parents are from Guatemala, said most Jewish people in Guatemala are Sephardic. Picciotto, a hearing and speech sciences major, made a chickpea dish using her mother’s recipe.
Senior Jessica Hilfer, a psychology major, made traditional potato pancakes from the Czech Republic, where she studied abroad last spring. Though there isn’t a large Jewish population there now, she said there is a lot of Jewish history and influence in the country.
Israeli food was the most plentiful at the event, and students could choose from a table filled with meat burekas, Israeli salad, shawarma, falafel, pita and hummus.
Hillel Israel Fellow Nurit Eitan made the Israeli salad — a combination of tomatoes, onions and cucumbers — and said she was excited to give students the opportunity to learn more about traditional Israeli foods.
“I’m really glad people have a chance to taste Israeli food if they’ve never tried it before,” Eitan said. “If they have had it before, it reminds them of their time in Israel.”
Senior Max Cohen came to the event for the food but said he ended up learning more about his peers.
“It’s nice because there are people that I know, and their heritage is from different places, so getting to see that side of their identity is really, really cool,” the computer engineering major said.
Both Siller and Mitrani said they hope students learned something about worldwide Judaism during the event.
“No one ever believes me when I say I’m Cuban,” Mitrani said. “But I tell them culture, heritage — it’s all from inside; it’s not about the look; it’s how you act. So I try to represent Cuba as much as possible.”
