To the Editor:
Passover tradition dictates that during the weeklong holiday, no flour, wheat, soy, carbohydrates or legumes may be consumed. For the first 19 years of my life, I have dutifully followed these rigid guidelines, to the point where I would refrain from eating anything containing corn syrup or soy lecithin. My downfall: a simple, unassuming peanut-butter-on-matzo sandwich from Rand’s Passover table.
When I came to Vanderbilt, I was assured the school was doing its best to inspire religious tolerance on campus and was actively recruiting students from a wide array of religious backgrounds, including Judaism. Given this background, you can imagine my shock when the only accommodations made for Jews during Passover were a small table in front of Rand, sporting matzo, peanut butter, horseradish and honey. Even to this, however, I grew accustomed; I learned not to expect Vanderbilt to go out of its way to provide for students following different dietary guidelines or to foster religious education along such lines.
This year it hit me: on Rand’s Passover table, the only Passover staple offered was not kosher. Peanuts are legumes, and are thus anathema for Passover. The particular brand of peanut butter offered contains not only peanuts, but also soybean oil and corn syrup, all three of which violate Passover guidelines. Is this really the message Vanderbilt wants to send to its Jewish student population, that the school cannot be bothered to research the very holiday they are pretending to celebrate?
A kosher Passover menu would not be hard to create. Most meat dishes are already kosher for Passover. Maybe a sauce or two would be thinner without their flour base, or breaded meats traded for grilled, or even pan-fried offerings. It is not necessary for Vanderbilt to change all of its food during the week of Passover; by no means am I campaigning for an impossible concession to be made by all of Vanderbilt’s population. I am simply asking for Vanderbilt to look into religious traditions while preaching tolerance and to not go out of its way to make religious observance impossible.
Galen White
Junior, A&S
