This past Tuesday, students in the Comparative Religion module welcomed in Eden Olsberg, Gann Class of 2017, to their class. She spoke about her experience doing Peace Corps in Morrocco. In her two years living in the Atlas Mountains of Morrocco, Eden became fluent in Moroccan Arabic (Darija) befriended many local Moroccans, learned many Amazigh (indigenous) traditions and attended multiple Muslim weddings and Iftars (festive nighttime parties during Ramadan).
Eden explained how there used to be hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Morocco, who left after the creation of the State of Israel due to their desire to return to their ancestral homeland and because they were worried about their future in Morocco.
Students found Eden’s story inspiring, sharing that they had never known any Jewish person who lived in a Muslim country. While Eden decided not to reveal her Jewish identity, she did not leave her Jewish identity behind, cooking and baking her favorite Jewish dishes (matzah ball soup, challah, hamantaschen, and latkes) and sharing them with her friends as “American food.”
