My Jewish life is back. When I took my semester break I also took a slight Jewish break. However, this past weekend was the regional Jewish event for the United Kingdom. Each year students from Whales, Ireland, Scotland and England meet in a city to have a shabbaton together where the hosting town introduces everyone to Jewish life in that town and at the local university. This year the regional event was hosted in St. Andrews at the Univeristy.
Around 40 students attended and stayed at a local hostel. The event began with kabalat shabbat and a Friday evening meal. The next morning, in the Shabbat services, biblical texts were discussed as well as everyone's Jewish background. After services Jews went to the pub to celebrate the unity and continued to explore the town as one. Finally, on Sunday, a morning brunch was held along with good-byes. This experience truly showed that Jews can find each other wherever they go.
Also, as often occurs when Jews gather, sixth degrees of separation took place. One person at the events, Chanan, is a Jew from New York studying at Comlumbia and Yeshiva University. He knows kids from ICJA and CJHS.
In preparation for the event I volunteered to help out in the kitchen to prepare the sabbath meal. As the majority of people there were not great cooks, and I am always one to experiment, a lot of the cooking and decisions were left to me. The few of us in the kitchen ended up making tons of stuffed peppers, pasta, Israeli salad, egg salad, chicken and more. I was complemented after for my skills in the kitchen and ability to improvise. This led to an offer by the Shabbat Officer to come and cook weekly for the Jewish society. I plan to take this offer and start to make Jewish dishes for everyone to enjoy. I'll take suggestions if anyone has any. Send me your recipes!
No comments:
Post a Comment