Mitzvah Day: Jews and Muslims come together to cook chicken soup
It is a beloved Jewish dish, served at Shabbat dinners to family and friends and reputed to have powerful medicinal properties. It is not normally cooked or served in a mosque.
But on Sunday, vast quantities of chicken soup – often known as “Jewish penicillin” – were being made at the East London mosque by Jewish and Muslim volunteers to be distributed to homeless centres.
Mounds of carrots, garlic, onions and celery were peeled and chopped on long benches by Muslim scouts, volunteers from Muslim Aid, members of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organisation and the New Stoke Newington Shul.
At another table, LSE student Emily Otvos instructed fellow students on the preparation of matzo balls, the traditional dumpling served with chicken soup – despite confessing that she usually left them on the side.
Tahir Iqbal, events director of Elite Caterers, was in charge of preparing 90 halal chickens for the pot. His company, which caters for Asian weddings and corporate events, donated the ingredients, equipment and transport for the cookathon.
“This is a new experience for us. I’ve never made Jewish chicken soup before, but I’ve been practising for two weeks, including on my family,” he said. The nearest Asian equivalent was chicken yakhni, a spicy broth, he added.
Across the UK, more than 2,500 servings of soup – kosher, halal, vegetarian and vegan – were being cooked at 20 venues, with soup-making events also taking place in Germany, Poland, South Africa and Australia, as part of Mitzvah Day – a day of social action led by the Jewish community but involving people of other faiths and no faith.
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