South African Hamentashen

As a self-described hamentashen maven, I love when Purim rolls around. Preparing the delicate hamentashen with flaky shells and flavourful apricot fillings requires much patience, but promises a worthwhile reward. I have baked hamentashen for years with my grandmother and consider myself something of an expert in the art. In fact, I do not let Purim's once-a-year occurrence dissuade me from making and eating hamentashen year-round. I last prepared a batch in December.

UCT's Kaplan Centre, the building for Jewish life on campus, provided hamentashen to all lunchtime customers today. The hamentashen greatly differed from what I am accustomed to in North America: the pastry dough covered the entire filling! And the fillings themselves were different. It seems that South African Jews, almost entirely of Lithuanian stock, remain more loyal to the Eastern European poppy seed -- or mun -- fillings of the shtetl. I did find a delicious apple and raisin filling, which may inspire me to use that filling in my own baking.

I have my recipe to bake my own hamentashen, which I aim to do this weekend. There are other Jewish students in my immediate study abroad programme, and I'm sure they'd enjoy some too.

A few hours after the hamentashen experience, I ran into my new friend Kwajo, a first year UCT student from Johannesburg. We both volunteer for the Township Debate League (TDL), a network of schools that train debate teams for tournaments between each other. The learners come from impoverished homes (to say the least) and truly inspire me every week. Kwajo and I met at the full day of TDL training (it lasted from 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a Saturday), and he told me how many Jewish friends he has at home in Joburg. He threw out all the Yiddish words we Americans use in everyday speech: schlep, mensch, shvitz and others. I was very impressed!

Today, I was talking to another friend outside the Leslie Social Science Building, and he walked behind me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Good yom tov."

For those wondering how Kwajo knew I was Jewish, it came up when he asked which foreign countries I have visited. I did not initially list Israel -- there is anti-Semitism in South Africa and feelings toward Israel are not warm. Instead, I told him I have visited the Czech Republic and Poland. After hearing Poland, he asked if I was Jewish. From his Jewish friends at home, he knew that only Jews visit Poland...

Chag Purim Sameach!