What’s In a Name?
When I was young, I thought college hijinx would be like what I saw when I snuck a forbidden look at the R-rated movie Animal House. The famous scene where John Belushi shoves a bunch of mashed potatoes into his mouth and then takes his hands up to his cheeks to pop it as if he was a giant zit.
Then everyone screamed, “Foodfight!”
In today’s fraught environment over Israel, food fights in college and elsewhere are part of the culture wars not cafeteria fights of yore. Instead, these fights are about where food originated from, what it should be called and who should get credit for its creation. Erasing the name “Israeli” in front of a food doesn’t change the food, it is just an attempt to erase Israel and its contributions. Another way for those who hate Israel to try to deligitimize everything about it.
This is the case with Israeli couscous, a food created and made in Israel by Osem, an Israeli company. In Hebrew, these small pellets are called “ptitim,” hard small balls made of wheat flour and toasted in an oven. The Osem packaging calls them “pearls” in parentheses after the name “Israeli couscous.” That makes sense because they do look a lot like small pearls.
In December, it was reported in several news outlets that Yale removed the word “Israeli” from in front of the description of a salad after a picture showing the change was sent out on X (formerly Twitter) by a Yale sophomore. When asked about the name change, a Yale spokesman said that “[a]uthenticity of the food and naming of the recipes have been a concern brought to us by students in the past. “There were times that they felt our food did not ‘authentically’ represent the country or ethnicity referenced in the name.” So they removed the name. The name change didn’t last too long in this case, since Yale realized their mistake and agreed that “ Israeli Couscous” is indeed an actual ingredient and is explicitly listed on the ingredient list. Considering it is the main ingredient, it is appropriate to remain in the title, and we will correct this oversight.”
Similarly, Trader Joes changed the name of its Israeli couscous last year owing to a change in their production according to their statement to The Nosher. Trader Joes claimed this had nothing to do with disowning Israel’s connection to the pearl-shaped pasta.
It is unbelievable that the name of the product, a product created in Israel, should be called something different. It is clear that the name change is precipitated by the current climate and people either wanting to avoid controversy or wanting to avoid association with Israel.
These episodes are all the more ironic when you understand the origin of the creation of Israeli couscous, which is actually tied to the creation of the state of Israel. See Wikipedia. In 1948, shortly after Israel declared its independence after the U.N. voted in favor of a two state partition (which was only accepted by Israel). Immediately after that, Israel was attacked by all its neighbors. At that same time, most Arab Middle Eastern countries had Jewish populations but after Israel’s independence was declared, the Jews in these countries were driven out or made to feel very unsafe to the point they felt they had to flee. As a result, between 700,000 and 850,000 Jews from Arab countries arrived in Israel at the time that Israel was in its infancy. See Wikipedia.
One of the concerns the new state had was how to feed all these new people. Israel’s first Prime Minister, Ben Gurion, went to the head of the largest Israeli food manufacturer to create a rice substitute that could be mass produced. The company made what is called in Hebrew “ptitim” — which are hard small balls made of wheat flour and toasted in an oven. For many years, ptitim in the U.S. and elsewhere were called “Israeli couscous,” since they were created in Israel by an Israeli company.
Israeli couscous was built on food traditions that came before it such as moghrabieh, a round, baked couscous from other Middle Eastern countries like Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, along with matfoul, brought from Morocco to Palestine, which is created using a different method. Israeli couscous was created by Israelis in Israel and should remain what it is: Israeli couscous.
Stay tuned for Part II.
