School fundraiser dinner

Saturday night Naomi and I went to a fundraiser dinner for our girls' Jewish day school. We thought it would be a good opportunity to meet some other parents, although ironically most of the very few parents we knew were not in attendance. The dinner was held at a hotel which happened to be much closer to our apartment than the school itself is. The event started at 7:30pm, and there were nice hors d'oeuvres. Naomi had previously communicated with, but never met, a cousin of a friend, and this cousin was a parent at the school and also reportedly striking. Naomi recognized this person based on a physical description, and thus began our inroads meeting other parents that evening.

Around 9pm, I think, we were ushered into the dining area for the actual dinner. Interestingly, among our shepherds were two members of the school's security professionals, and they appeared to be there in their regular professional capacity. Seating was assigned, and seating assignments were based on childrens' classrooms, so we met another cohort of parents. While waiting for dinner, some of the older kids gave a performance that included singing and something like stand-up (we didn't get the jokes at all—our French isn't there yet), and some leadership speechifying, and some parent dancing. At 10:15pm the appetizers had been served and cleared, and Naomi and I had to call it quits. It would not surprise me if—now 3 days later—the parents are still waiting for their dinner.

The food and dress was not as Jewish as I had expected. The only kippahs (yarmulkes, skullcaps, beanies) that I saw were on a few of the performing schoolboys, and the food was probably not kosher (I'm not sure, but I think there was mixing of meat and dairy, and it's possible there was pork). I spoke with another parent about Jewish practice in Brussels, and he said it was less kosher-y, less synagogue-y, etc., than one would find in the US for Jews "operating" at a comparable level. (There is apparently at least one enclave in Brussels where Jews practice more rigorously, but for the most part observant Jews in Belgium are probably concentrated in Antwerp.)

On a different Jewish note, we happen to live close to a halal butcher. (Ok, technically that's not a Jewish note.) Halal does not share koshrut's prohibition against mixing meat and dairy, so it's possible some of the halal butcher's prepared meats include dairy; but there are some intriguing meat options for us there that we don't usually have, such as fresh chicken sausage (haven't had that yet, but plan to).