<p>RockvilleMom–Saw your note about URichmond’s new rabbi and their interfaith trip to Israel. D1 went with them and it was WONDERFUL! A very different experience from Birthright or the archeological dig that she had experienced. I just noticed in a URichmond email yesterday that the Rabbi is “calling for applications” for this year’s trip. I urge everyone to apply and if anyone has questions, feel free to private message me. D1 is having a wonderful Jewish experience there. In fact, the study abroadh she is on with them now lead her to High Holiday services at a synagogue in Cochin India that was built in 1600s.</p>
<p>Also want to add some news that I’m not sure you saw re: Wake Forest food service and Jewish style (albeit not kosher) food. Sorry for the long insert here but I cut and pasted the article that D2 sent me from the blackandgold campus news. Thought you’d get a kick out of the reference to College Confidential helping Jewish families find schools where they’d feel comfortable. :)</p>
<p>Food diversity increases with Pit keeping kosher
Posted on October 21, 2011 by Yasmin Bendaas, Staff writer
ARAMARK has taken steps to making minority students more welcome in their dining facilities by by serving religiously conscious foods.
Due to the growing Jewish and Muslim student populations on campus, ARAMARK is bringing kosher, halal and other religion-conscious prepared foods to the Pit, especially during religious holidays.
The word kosher stems from the Hebrew word kosher,meaning right or proper. Kosher and halal foods denote foods prepared according to religious and dietary laws. For meats to be declared kosher or halal, the animals must be killed in a humane manner that does not cause suffering.
We are valuing people by valuing their traditions, Chaplain Tim Auman said, regarding this recent movement by ARAMARK to incorporate Muslim and Jewish-friendly food options.
For many students, the impact reaches their families as well. Freshman Shoshanna Goldin explained that her mother used the web-site College Confidential to learn more about the activity of Hillel, the Jewish student organization on campus, and Jewish life in general at Wake.
After ARAMARKs inclusion of Jewish foods, the word is out to possible incoming students.
[My mother] now leaves feedback so that other students can see what were doing, Goldin said.
According to the WFU Factbook, in 2010 Muslims accounted for 0.6 percent of the undergraduate student population and Jews accounted for 2.6 percent.
However, the number of Muslim and Jewish students has barely increased since 2000, with the population of Muslim students increasing by only 0.3 percent in the past 10 years and the number of Jewish students increasing by 1.5 percent.
Despite remaining a very small minority population, the recent push for considerations of religion in cafeteria meals has not gone unheeded.
One week after the first meeting between the Office of the Chaplain, Hilell, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and ARAMARK, the food service company on campus, a table was set in the Pit to recognize Shabbat.
The traditional Jewish Friday night festive meal was represented with two cups of grape juice in place of wine, Challah (a traditional, sweet braided bread), and candlesticks.
After a mishap last year, in which many Jewish students were offended to find out the serving of Motzah ball soup on Passover was actually not kosher, ARAMARK has been paying much closer attention to the dietary needs of their religious minorities.
It was really about a lack of education, said Goldin, student representative of Hillel in meetings with ARAMARK.
One step that ARAMARK has taken to better collaborate with Hillel include accepting written menus assembled, which Goldin composed by asking Jewish students about their favorite foods often prepared at home.
Several menus have already been submitted pertaining to holiday meal choices.
For example, the traditional apples and honey were displayed and offered at the Pit for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
For Muslim students, ARAMARK has discussed bringing goat in commemoration of Eid Al-Adha.
One day per month after this kick-off event, ARAMARK is planning on also bringing halal meat for students. Yet, MSA plans on proposing the representation of halal meats to be once a week.
Its a huge deal, sophomore Muhammad Siddiqui, MSA president, said. I keep halal. It is a challenge to go to the Pit and have fewer options. It helps me not feel as restricted I can look forward to that one day I get to eat meat.
Muslim and Jewish students alike have expressed in their talks to ARMARK that having religiously conscious foods available would make a big difference to their university experience.
Its a good gesture from ARAMARK and the school, Siddiqui said.
Having foods pertaining to religious groups available is not only evident to the Muslim and Jewish students, but to the student population as a whole, which was an important factor.
With religious foods presented in such a central campus location as the Pit, intercultural understanding is promoted among the student population by expanding culinary tastes and exposing others to the traditions of fellow students who comprise religious minorities.
I think the future of our planet is dependent on how we understand people that are different from us, Chaplain Auman said.</p>
I really wanted to compare the two schools since they are close in size and geography. I’m guessing the philosphy of the schools are quite different.</p>