'It means a lot like comfort food to me'
Hillel at Central Michigan hosts Shabbat dinner to wrap up Jewish Heritage Week
Walking in to Kulhavi 146, the smell of Kosher comforts the Jewish community at Central Michigan.
Hillel at CMU hosted a Shabbat dinner for Jewish Heritage Week. The dinner wrapped up the all of the events for the Jewish Heritage Week.
For Jewish people, the Shabbat dinner is an important part of the culture.
“It means a lot like comfort food to me,” Hillel Vice President of Educational Programming Elizabeth Slater said. “It just means something home, a little bit, to me.”
Slater, a junior majoring in political science, explained how having a community like Hillel is key to the culture at CMU.
“It’s really nice to be able to have a community because otherwise, now, we (would) be by ourselves, celebrating by ourselves, which can be kind of isolating and lonely,” she said. “So it’s really nice to be able to connect with people that we can share with these traditions.”
She also talked about the importance of celebrating the Shabbat dinner, “Last year, Lily Segal and I, who’s the president of Hillel, we wanted to celebrate a little bit more about Jewish Heritage, especially as international Holocaust Remembrance day is Jan. 27.”
“People have learned more about Jewish heritage and what it means because a lot of people don't know that it’s different than just the religion, or just the culture or whatever," Slater said. “They think it’s all different, when it’s all, kind of, all mushed together.”
Bhuvi Pundir, who is non-Jewish, said she came to the dinner, because, “I’m a (Multicultural Advancement) scholar and (the dinner is) a MAC scholar thing,” she said. “I like trying different foods, so I think that’s why I came mostly.”
For the dinner, Hillel served rice, falafel, chicken, bread, cucumbers and hummus. In normal circumstances, the dinner would be complemented with wine.
“To start Shabbat, you start with drinking, usually, wine, but you know, we’re on campus, so it’s grape juice,” Slater said.
Students generally liked the food. Pundir said she enjoyed it.
The turnout was approximately 40 to 50 people.
“It’s a Friday night, I know people don’t really want to go to events on a Friday evening, but I think it’s great to be able to celebrate Shabbat with a bunch of people that want to learn about it,” Slater said.
