by Mendy Rimler, lubavitch.com
60 Jewish and Muslim school children cooked side by side Wednesday in Bondi’s Our Big Kitchen, a Chabad run community kitchen in Sydney, Australia.
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Education Secretariat coordinated the event and brought the schools together.
They approached Rabbi Dovid Slavin, director of Our Big Kitchen with the idea to host the Year 5 and 6 students from the Jewish Mount Sinai College and the Muslim Arkana College – 30 from each –for a day of cooking and discussion about food and charity.
“We obviously agreed to the idea to host the two schools at Our Big Kitchen. It was a way for Jews and Muslims to come together and cook each other’s food and realize that we can live together in peace,” Rabbi Slavin told lubavitch.com.
As with all operations in Our Big Kitchen, rabbinic supervision was on hand throughout the day, ensuring that all food was prepared according to the Halachic requirements. OBK also has halal certification.
Our Big Kitchen is an innovative venue in Sydney’s Chabad Yeshiva Centre designed to draw diverse people together in cooking for worthy causes.
Meals are prepared for the homeless and the homebound; disabled individuals enjoy therapy through cooking; kids in the kitchen get to experiment with their own culinary flair; and families interested in going Kosher in its laws and customs can learn the intricacies of keeping a kosher kitchen.
Speaking to the Australian J-Wire, Arkana College Principal Osman Karolia said: “What our schools have done, with the help of the Board of Deputies, Al Ghazzali, Our Big Kitchen and Together for Humanity, is almost unheard of, anywhere. Plenty of schools meet and chat, but the nature of this relationship is inspiring.”
big kiddush hashem
we are very proud
well done and keep up the amazing work!!
totally!!!! pack ur bags people and get ready to board the eagles..
i <3 sydney!!!
kid are kids, they just did it to show that we want peace in israel, these kids were just cooking together not asking eachother, so do u think israel belongs to us?
5, I didnt see any pics like u described, just the opposite, she seemed to be very open.
10, that’s not how diplomacy works. you need to accept 1 step in order to be able to progress.
#10 pretty much says it right.
I don’t know if they do (accept it as our land) but if such events can possibly decrease the hate, then it’s probably a good thing & we are one step closer to the possibility of Jews being accepted as equally deserving of a land by Muslims. Nothing happens overnight
Will definitly come first to Sydney Australia.
This sort of news doesn’t do anything for me. It was the initative of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and that’s fine. To say that this is also a goal of Chabad, to brings Jews and Muslims together, well, I am not convinces that the Rebbe would go along with this , unless the sheva mitzvois bnei Noach is discussed , and that terrorism be loudly and clearly rejetced.
Do these students accept that Jews have a right to live in Israel, and that it is OUR land ?
o.k…………
Yasher Koach for this great innitiative. Who said that Chabad was a “racist organization”?
amazing idea !!!
your the biggest and the best!
It was a lovely idea, but…… read the body language of the muslim woman- arms folded across her body. She is not open to the conversation that Rabbi Slavin is having.
Many other subtle body language signs are shown from the staff of Arkana College. Fortunately NONE of the kids from either school display anything but delight and happinesss in cooking together.
Kol Havavod Rabbi Slavin & Leah.
on the one hand, it is great because it shows we are accepting to other cultures, but arent we inviting something to happen?
There should be more appropriate meetings of this sort, there are many muslim’s who are friendly and respectful of jewish people and vice versa.
Moshiach must really be coming