Israel Day aims for culture, not politics

Glossy pictures of Israeli faces lined the edges of College Green, staring out at the hundreds of students walking by Israel Palooza yesterday. Most passers-by turned their heads, and some stopped to take a closer look.

"We want to put a personal face on this enigma that is Israel," College sophomore Gaby Kipnis said.

She is co-chairwoman of Hillel's Israel Cultural Committee, which put together yesterday's event, a nonpolitical festival of Israeli culture.

Besides the pictures of faces -- which included pro-Israel testimonials -- banners, posters and white and blue balloons decorated the corner of the Green closest to Van Pelt Library. In the center, Hillel volunteers standing behind decorated tables offered Israeli foods like falafel and Bissli Snacks, T-shirts, Star of David cookies and brochures about traveling and studying in Israel.

The celebration on the Green is the highest-profile event of Israel Palooza, which began Sunday night.

But while festival organizers maintained that the event was meant "to celebrate Israeli culture, aside from the political activism on campus that overshadows the cultural aspects," many students doubted whether this was possible.

"The existence of Israel in itself is political, so you can't really get around it," College junior Greg Berger said.

Engineering freshman Andrew Waterson scoffed at the pictures of the faces and their testimonials along the Green.

"I'm surprised that they're making this huge effort to make Israel seem like this great place," he said. "It seems like they assume a negative opinion of Israel to begin with. I find it a little bit silly, especially here," at Penn.

But for the students at Penn unfamiliar with Israel -- who are typically not vocal on the subject -- the event was an unusual opportunity. College senior Kent Lasnoski was walking past the Green and stopped to help some volunteers carry tables. He wanted to know what the event was about.

"What was interesting to me was seeing the non-Jewish side of Israel," he said. "I didn't even know there were non-Jewish people excited about Israel."

In addition to Israel Palooza, this week is also Palestine Awareness Week. Wharton sophomore Shira Goldberg, who was in charge of planning Israel Palooza, said that the convergence of the two was unintentional.

College junior Ahmed Moor, spokesman for Students for Justice in Palestine -- formerly the Free Palestine Action Network -- said the group chose this week as Palestine Awareness Week solely based on the availability of attending speakers.

Moor did express a wish "that the Israeli culture groups would give more information about where Israeli culture comes from. A lot of it has roots in Palestinian culture, like falafel, for example."

Tension manifested itself in small things like the pleas of a woman selling Israeli crafts. Maxine Elkins, who said that five of her six children graduated from Penn, called for buyers to support Israeli artists from beyond a yellow-clothed table littered with homemade jewelry and Hebrew-lettered crafts.

"With tourism down from the terrorist attacks, it's very difficult for them there," she said. Then, raising her voice to a near-hysterical level, she offered to show a letter from an Israeli artist thanking Elkins for selling her crafts in America, enabling Israeli artists to pay rent.

"The political stuff is ingrained. It's always in the back of your mind," said College junior Lauren Weinstein, who was on the Green handing out brochures for Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she spent the fall semester.

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