Israel Block Party

Like John already said, last week we decided to check out the Israel block party after class. It had just been opened about half an hour before so things had not really geared up. People were still pulling out fliers and hanging up signs. The promising looking band was still tuning its guitars, but I hear that later the band put on quite a show.

((Falafel Sandwich))
The food though, looked very appetizing. Unlike John who has self-restraint with eating, I probably would have splurged on a falafel if I had had any physical, non-BevoBucks, money on me. I thought it was smart to market the appetizing Mediterranean food of the area, along with something popular like hookah. Nothing brings college students to an event or meeting like food, especially if it’s free (although in this case it was not).

Walking around, little bits of information jumped out at me. The pie chart the pie chart that John and I posed in front of very much surprised me because, for some reason… perhaps from ethnocentrism, I thought that the majority of the world was Christian. In The Enemy at Home, D’Souza claims that the “the deeper problem, even for Americans who take the trouble to learn something about the Muslim world, is ethnocentrism” (D’Souza 69). Perhaps D’Souza is right in his views on ethnocentrism. Perhaps that is the problem in learning about the Hebrew world.
((The beautiful side of Israel))
I also picked up the Israel vacation flier that John speaks of, and I too was surprised about how serene a picture the flyers paint. Of course, the pamphlets could have just been a marketing device to encourage tourism. Yet while I think that they are partly for marketing purposes, the fliers may also offer a look into the minds of the Jewish population. The roots of any culture will be idealized and hold great meaning, so the idealized views of Israel partly reflect the value the Hebrew culture places in that area.
((The Dome of the Rock is important to multiple religions))
Another information pamphlet that stood out was a map of pilgrimage sites in Israel. I was blown away by the number of these sites, and the importance that Israel has to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. One such site is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Last semester I studied this shrine for its Muslim architecture, so I find it culturally interesting that it also appears at a predominately Jewish festival.

((Sarah and I. Being Jewish, Sarah automatically becomes part of a tight-knight community))
What stuck with the most was, in fact, the sense of Jewish community I felt at the party. Right as John left I ran into my roommate for next year, Sarah. I decided to keep her company as she looked around, and this time I had an entirely different experience. Sarah is Jewish but has never seemed particularly involved in the Jewish activities here on campus. Walking around, however, she chatted with about seven different people who all were very friendly and genuinely interested in how she was. Later when I asked how she know so many people, she told me that they were all Jewish. I know that Judaism has a strong emphasis on tradition, and at the Israel Block Party I found that they also have a strong sense of community.