Members of Students For Israel and Japan Club learned this lesson when they went grocery shopping for YamalKimono, a cross-cultural event held Wednesday night at the Fiedler Hillel Center. About 35 students came to sample ethnic food, watch a martial arts demonstration and practice sumo wrestling.
“There are so many groups on this campus,” said SFI treasurer Dan Golden, who thought of the idea for YamalKimono. “There’s a club for every ethnic group and religion. But not many people cross the boundaries. If we’re not here to learn from each other, what are we here for?”
Members of SFI – formerly known as Northwestern Israel Public Affairs Committee – and Japan Club first met at the Activity Fair, where they found themselves in neighboring booths. They switched places and helped recruit new members for each other.
“I was bored and asked them if we could trade booths,” said Golden, a Weinberg sophomore. “I wore the kimono and I got people to sign up for them, and they got people to sign up for us.”
Golden contacted Japan Club members last month with the idea to co-sponsor a cultural event, so Japan Club planned its quarterly sushi social to include SFI. Golden’s friend coined the name “YamalKimono” – a combination of yarmulke, the skullcap worn by Jewish males, and kimono, the traditional wide-sleeved long robe worn by the Japanese. SFI brought pita, hummus and falafel, while Japan Club set up a sushi-rolling station with seaweed wraps, eggs, cucumbers and crab strips.
“This is like my house,” said Aikido Club member Ken Kumayama, who has a Japanese father and a Jewish mother.
Japan Club President Brian Walther said the hunt for kosher Japanese food taught him and other members more about Jewish culture. A joint shopping trip located kosher seaweed in Skokie. When Japan Club members brought their rice cookers to Hillel, they learned they would have to use special pots and utensils to prepare the sticky rice.
“This is really exciting to learn about kosher and to come into Hillel and see what it has to offer,” said Walther, a Speech junior.
During the evening, Japanese pop music played while “Fiddler on the Roof” was projected without sound on a large screen. Aikido Club members demonstrated karate and aikido techniques. Students tried their hand at sumo wrestling, attempting to push each other out of a ring made from masking tape.
Another hands-on part of YamalKimono was food preparation, as students stuffed pita sandwiches and rolled their own sushi. Learning the finer points of sushi-making was a first experience for many students.
“I don’t think this counts as rolling,” said McCormick sophomore Mark Dredze, as he piled crab and cucumbers on top of his seaweed wrap. “I think I’m an embarrassment to the people who invented sushi.”
Walther said he enjoyed the event because it was an opportunity to partner with a non-Asian student group and hopes to work with Turkish Club next. Golden said YamalKimono was a fun, informal way for anyone on campus to experience an unlikely combination of cultures.
“The point is it’s not only for Jewish or Japanese people,” he said. “It’s for everyone to get to experience two cultures in one. It’d be naive to walk around this campus and say we aren’t segregated. Fun cultural events where we can learn about each other would be a good first step.”
