Whoa, week 11 already! This was a much less intellectually-taxing week, but I did the readings before dinner, which I don't recommend because it was basically torture.
To start, the first thing I thought of for some reason was this short film, "The West Bank Story," about two competing restaurants right beside each other in the West Bank, one run by a Jewish family and the other by a Palestinian family. I saw it a long time ago and it's actually pretty entertaining. So here it is!
One point that struck me about Lebovitz's piece was when he said, "I'm not a very spiritual person, but you just need to walk the streets of Jerusalem, or step into a place a worship, and see how powerful the city is." I find it interesting that no matter the background of the people whose pieces we've read or the people we've spoken with on video conferences, they all say that Jerusalem is an incredibly emotive, powerful place. While this isn't really tied to food specifically, it's just something that makes me want to visit Jerusalem even more to experience.
I thought the freshness of all of the food in the pictures and videos made it all the more enticing. In the US in general, we do not really experience food like that wherever we go. We mostly go to grocery stores and have produce imported from all over the world. I can imagine that in a place with so many cultures, no matter what food they prefer, it is easy to get the ingredients to make whatever they want. It reminded me of when I was in Italy and there were produce stands everywhere with produce grown at home, or other baked goods made at home. It all just looks so wonderful that I cannot imagine anyone having any kind of disagreement about food.
I thought that discussion of cultural appropriation within the context of food during the videos was a little strange. Appropriation has a very negative connotation, but since many people in Israel are of Arab descent, it would only make sense that the food they cook would be influenced by their own culture. Not to mention that Israel is a melting pot/tossed salad/whatever you want to call it. To me, that would be like saying that Americans are culturally appropriating when serving German-style frankfurters. I don't know if maybe I was missing something, but I was wondering what you all thought about that.
Discussion Questions:
1. For those of you who have been to Jerusalem/Israel, besides the influence of Arab and other Middle Eastern food discussed in the videos we watched, what other cultural influences on food have you seen?
2. Do you think that food can be a unifying enough experience to be used to bridge understanding between Israelis and Palestinians within Jerusalem, perhaps through some kind of unification project?
I'd also like to throw in my two cents for question two. Something I feel I have learned throughout the course thus far is that almost anything can bring people together...as long as they want to come together. When I hear about the musicians coming together to create, or dialogue groups consisting of teenagers interesting in bridging the gap between cultures, I am struck with the reality that these individuals want to be there. The people who attend these groups want to try and understand--they have a desire to step outside themselves. I'm not sure whether or not that is the most hopeful statement I could have offered, but it is just something I feel I have gotten out of our readings and speakers thus far.
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I also read it before meal time and agree it was not my best choice!