Lunch served in the cafeteria at Harvard Business School usually doesn’t make international news. Except last month, when a Harvard graduate student posted to Facebook a picture of the menu items on the “Israeli Mezze Station” (mezze is a term used in the Mediterranean for a series of small plates) along with a 700-word rant about why she found the menu offensive.
Ingredient by ingredient, she made a case for why the food shouldn’t be considered Israeli, but Arab. For example: “Hummus is an Arabic word meaning ‘chickpeas,’ ” she pointed out. “The earliest documented recipe for something similar to modern hummus dates to 13th Century (CE) Egypt. --> Since Israel was created in 1948, Israel is NOT 13th CENTURY EGYPT! And Hummus is therefore NOT ISRAELI.” Within days, the post was “liked” almost 5,000 times, received hundreds of comments, and was shared by over 3,000 people. It was picked up in publications across the globe, including the Jerusalem Post and Al Arabiya News.
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She is probably offended when people call store brand tissues by the brand name Kleenex.
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Maybe the station should have been called "Mediterranean" or "Middle Eastern" rather than Israeli or Arab.
I think that would pretty ridiculous since it was apparently supposed to be sampling of foods that people eat in Israel.
It did make me wonder, though, about what foods are Israeli. Most foods that are considered Jewish in America were developed in Europe during the nearly 2000 years that Israel didn't exist.
Lox and other salmon recipes are standard repertoire, but there are no salmon in the middle east.
Israeli STYLE Hummis. . . Maybe one more word added (style) could have averted a near psychotic episode from the grad student.
Remember the change to "Freedon fries" when France refused to participate in the Iraq War?
The French were probably relieved. :-) Potatoes in France are fried twice, so they probably don't consider our version authentic.
Such a small-minded individual. People say you get crankier as you get older. I wonder what she'll be like at 60.
The young lady, who clearly passed up some choice morsels, is clearly mishugina.
Not having seen her rant, I am going to assume that this well-intentioned, poor communicator was trying to point out that we all benefit from ethnic and cultural diversity in all aspects of our lives. If that were not her intent, then Harvard ought to reconsider admission policies. Corporate America needs diversity not divisiveness.