Yemenite Jahnun

Saturday Nov 29th:

On the Saturday of break, I went to have a Classic Yemenite Brunch – Jahnun a slowly baked delicious dough served with freshly made tomato sauce, alongside fresh salad, and hard boiled eggs, at one of my best friends Sarai’s house, who’s mother Tami is of Yemenite decent and immigrated to Israel at a very young age. After coming to the U.S she maintained her Yemenite cooking/baking traditions religiously. Every week the aroma of freshly baked pitas made at 4am the night before Friday dinner where classic Yemenite chicken soup prepared with cumin (a native middle-eastern spice native to Syria, which gives it its rather strong mustard-like color) or the smell of the Jahnun baking over night into the wee hours of Saturday morning is a guarantee.

Since going off to our respective universities it has become a tradition that I join their Brunch sitting tightly packed around a table full of delicious foods ready to dive in usually accompanied by at least another 5 guests. The best part of these meals aside from the food is the discussions that always surface. This visit Naama, another guest, shared she had gone on a program while at School that brought a group of American Students to the Palestinian Territories- I knew a political or rather serious conversation would unravel at the table. She proceeded to describe the horrific conditions they witnessed and terror she felt while there (forced to keep her dual Israeli identity a secret) especially when she was stopped by Palestinian Patrollers who looked at their passports and

Sarai’s mother who is a perfusionist also revealed that earlier in her career she and a group of doctors and medical experts went on a trip to the Palestinian territories sponsored by healthcare NGO aimed at improving medical assistance and hospital conditions, which are truly atrocious in those areas. As the conversation progressed she recapped an incredible story of coming to Minnesota where her husband was from when she first moved to the U.S and meeting and befriending a couple from Saudi Arabia at her university. She described the fear of knowing they hated Israelis, as they openly discussed it sometimes around her husband in their home, but she always kept it a secret and kept her home open to them. Over the course of a few years she explained that they came to be each others closest friends in Minnesota, the truth of her Yemenite origins and Israeli upbringing was kept a complete secret (she told them she had been born and raised in the states). But I sat there listening and wondered was that secrecy truly necessary? Would they not have befriended Tami and her American husband had the truth been revealed? Perhaps, but perhaps not, what does it say about our society then, and perhaps where we’ve gotten to now? Not that racism doesn’t still exist in today’s modern American society. As we have learned Arabs are often marginalized or stereotypically depicted especially as a result of 9/11, however my experience at NYU is that I’ve never met a students of various backgrounds (ethnic, religious, or racial) that didn’t feel comfortable expressing themselves as they are, and where they came from.

But perhaps back then in Minnesota in the early 80’s things were different- who knows. Yet the rest of her story revealed that their friendship continued for many years as they came over to their house a couple times a week regularly, and eventually she revealed her real identity and despite initial anger the connection was maintained. Her fear perhaps stemmed out of the fact that immigrants to Israel of Yemenite, Moroccan, or other darker skinned descendants often were treated (and at times still are) treated as second-class citizens or the “other” in Israel. She said by connecting on a human level, sharing the joys and hardships of daily life experiences, they became extremely close- through the universal links of humanity (which we discussed early on in the semester) and thus were able to truly get to know one another- stripped from prejudices. The conversation dove right into not only topics of Middle Eastern tension, but discussions of the other and how people seen as foreign are treated in different societies. Other Yemenite Friends who were also present
Although Jahnun is extremely difficult to prepare, I am attaching a traditional recipe and urge you to find a good middle eastern restaurant that serves it or attempt to make it as I did (I helped her mother one morning to fold and prepare the dough and in the aftermath of preparations my efforts were sadly called sabotage )