Palestine, Food, and Memory with Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban

In this special episode of Quakers Today, we share a conversation from The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope. Host Dwight Dunston speaks with Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban, an educator, writer, and former principal at Ramallah Friends School. From her home in Ramallah, Dr. Kafri Abu Laban reveals how Palestinian cuisine is deeply tied to identity, history, and resilience. Despite the challenges of forced displacement and cultural appropriation, Palestinian food remains a bridge to the past and a testament to memory, resistance, and celebration. The Seed podcast is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker study, retreat, and conference center welcoming all for Spirit-led learning and community.

About Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban: Dr. Kafri Abu Laban is a writer and educator whose work spans essays, poetry, and articles on Palestine, motherhood, and education. Formerly a chemistry professor, she transitioned to educational leadership as a principal and now leads initiatives at AlNayzak Organization. A proud Ramallah Friends School and Earlham College graduate, Quaker values continue to shape her life and faith. Follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Special Music: This episode features “Sada” by the Sada Trio—Ahmad Al Khatib, Pedram Shahlai, and Feras Sharestan—Middle Eastern virtuosos keeping their cultural roots alive in Sweden.

Friends Journal Fiction Issue: Explore Quaker-themed fiction in Friends Journal’s November 2024 issue, including “Bread of Life” by Vicki Winslow and “Penns Spring” by our co-host, Peterson Toscano. Read more at FriendsJournal.org.

Monthly Question: What novel, film, or television series changed your relationship with the world? Share your answer by calling 317-QUAKERS or responding on social media.

Follow Quakers Today on TikTok, Instagram, X, and visit us at QuakersToday.org.

Selected Quotes:

1. “Our cuisine is a direct extension of the land…we hold on to our food because it’s really our identity.” — Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban.
2. “Food is resistance, memory, healing, and celebration for displaced people.” — Dwight Dunston.

Quakers Today is the companion podcast to Friends Journal and other Friends Publishing Corporation (FPC) content online. It is written, hosted, and produced by Peterson Toscano and Miche McCall.

Feel free to send comments, questions, and requests for our new show. Email us at [e-mail]. Call our listener voicemail line: 317-QUAKERS.

Music from this episode comes from Epidemic Sound.

Episode Transcript

>> Peterson Toscano (00:04):
Hi, I'm Peterson Toscano uh, co host of the
Quakers Today podcast.
In this special interim episode of Quakers
Today, I share a Conversation Dwight
Dunston, the host of the
Conversations for Radical Hope, had with
Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban

(00:25):
Riyam and her family come from
Palestine. They currently live in Ramallah.
An educator and a writer, Reem
served as the upper School principal at the
Ramallah Friends School.
In this short conversation, Riyam
shares with Dwight the pleasures and
pain refugees experience when they

(00:47):
eat traditional meals from places they
can no longer visit or inhabit.
After you hear the episode, I will tell you
about season four of Quakers
Today and how you can appear on our
show.
Enjoy this conversation between Dwight

(01:08):
Dunstan and Dr. Riyam Kafri
Abu Laban

>> Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban (01:23):
Those flavors were connected to that land,
connected to a better time, connected to the time
where she was still a child and played out in
the sun right before she turned into a
refugee and suddenly displaced.
In the morning.

>> Dwight Dunstan (01:47):
You're listening to a, uh, mini episode of the
Seed, Conversations for Radical Hope.
In this Pindle Hill podcast, Quakers and other
seekers come together to explore visions of the
world growing through the cracks of our broken systems.
I'm your host, Dwight Dunston. Some of
these shorter episodes feature parts of conversations
never aired before. In others, I

(02:10):
will share excerpts from previous seasons.
Occasionally, you get to be a fly on the wall as I
share conversations and sounds from the Pendle Hill
campus. This is season five of the
Seed, and we are exploring world building.
It is easy to point out all that is wrong today.
But what is the world we long to see and
inhabit? In this mini episode,

(02:32):
I share a part of my conversation with a guest who joined me from
Ramallah, Palestine. She reveals
food's power for people displaced by war and
occupation.
Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban uh, is a
writer at heart. She crafts personal
essays, poetry, short stories,
and insightful articles on topics like

(02:53):
Palestine, motherhood, and education.
Food is such a big part of Palestinian
culture, and I've gotten a chance to
read your articles about foods and
recipes and the power of food. And
I want to read a quote from your article, the Splendid

(03:15):
Palestinian Table, and just ask you to just share
some thoughts on it. You
wrote, for Palestinians forced out of their land in
1948. Food is in the past tense,
only to be brought into the present when dishes
from their villages are made today to bring back
a glimpse of the colorful squash, herbs, and

(03:35):
crops of village life. For those who live in Gaza
food in the refugee camp is unwholesome, an
unfinished puzzle with pieces missing.
Yeah. I'm just curious if you have thoughts or reflections
from that quote or just how you think
about the power of food in
Palestinian culture.

>> Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban (03:56):
Wow. I wrote this a couple of years
ago, but it's so relevant
today. The thing is, I don't think of food as only
something that happens in the kitchen. I think our
cuisine is a direct extension of the land and
the land that we are being forced, uh, out of
and have been forced out of several times
now. We hold on to our food

(04:19):
because it's really our identity. And
when I say that it's, it's in the past for, for
refugees. And I, I was specifically talking about the
Gazan cuisine. Of all the foods in
Palestine, it's the most vibrant because Gaza had
so many refugee camps, because people had, it had an
influx of refugees in 1948. To

(04:39):
begin with, people came from different villages
around Gaza, from in the north, and they
brought together with them their own
kitchen. But then when
the blockade started, the
props weren't as readily available
and access to olive oil, which is a staple, for

(05:00):
example, was uh, not really as readily
available as before. And so suddenly
that this vibrant, colorful kitchen
was slowly losing those colors in a
sense, or at least fading in color because of the
blockade, because there, there was no way in and out of
Gaza at that, at that point. And so that's,

(05:20):
that's where this, this particular sentence came from. I
was thinking of that. There's an incredible Book and
a wonderful person who uh, worked
on it, uh, called, it's called the Gaza Kitchen.
And, and I think the author is,
is, uh, right now I, her name is escaping
me. But, but she's, she has family in Gaza currently

(05:40):
and she's spoken a lot about, and she's an activist as
well. But she's the one who kind of brought me
into the Gaza kitchen through her Book
and that's where that came from.
Um, but for Palestinians, it's
really not a well
lit stainless steel bench
kitchen. It's really the kitchen and the land

(06:03):
are extensions and are intertwined together
because when people lived in villages,
they ate what they were
harvesting. So if it was tomatoes, they had tomato
salad and Palestinian salad. And if
it was olive oil, then they would have olive
oil, fresh olive oil with fresh bread

(06:23):
and olives. And if it was wheat, then it
was, you know, something, uh, else. And if it
was okra, then it's okra for lunch, for
dinner. And they would cook out in, in the land
because they would be out in the sun all day and they were not going to
go back to their countries, to their
homes. So, so this is. So that's what

(06:43):
I think of when I think of the Palestinian cuisine, that it
is really an extension of the land, and that's why
we stick to it. And that's why my,
my late mother in law would
ask for specific dishes that she
used to make as a child or as
a younger person that were

(07:03):
directly, you know, her specialty in her
village. She was, she, she was a
refugee. She left her Village in 1948. She was only
12 at the time, and she lost three
brothers during the Nakba. So,
so, so those flavors were connected
to that land, connected to a better time, connected to
the time where she was still a child and

(07:26):
played out in the sun right before she turned
into a refugee and suddenly displaced and
suddenly older in. You know, because
when you go through that kind of trauma, you're no longer
your, your age in years no
longer matches your age and cognition and emotional
development. So, um, so she's, you know, she

(07:46):
would say, you know, she would specifically mention and
request specific foods that reminded
her of her village.

>> Dwight Dunstan (08:01):
Yeah, the food. Food as memory, food
as healing source, food
as grief
portal, food as celebration
portal, joy portal,
food as resistance.
Yeah.

>> Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban (08:18):
You know, we face appropriation of our food
on a regular basis. Right. And so
suddenly we're, you know, we're like, but wait a minute,
Qnafe is Palestinian, has always been
Palestinian for the
unknowing. You know, they would say, why is it
important to know where hummus came from or where

(08:38):
maqluba came from or where any of
those dishes came from? It's, you know, food is a
hedonistic pleasure that really is in the
now, but it's really a lot more than that.
Even if a good meal really lasts only 45
minutes, there are memories tied.

(09:01):
And what you know about this food
really informs your experience.

>> Dwight Dunstan (09:06):
Mm m. Yeah.
Yeah, that's. That's so,
so rich. It's such a
rich part of Palestinian
culture. Um, I'm hearing in food pathways
and food histories as you share
carry so much of the people's
history.

(09:48):
That was Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban uh,
a writer and educator who served as the upper School
principal at the Ramallah Friends School. She
crafts personal essays, poetry, short
stories, and insightful articles on topics like
Palestine, motherhood and education.
You can read more of her food [e-mail]

(10:08):
that's R
I Y
A M
M oskitchentablestories.com or
follow ream on Instagram at Ream
Khafre. For more of my conversations with
Rayam, listen to Season five Episode
two of the Seed.

(10:33):
Thank you for listening to this mini episode of the
Seed Conversations for Radical Hope.
What spoke to you in this episode? How does this
conversation fit into your journey? What would you like to
add? Contact me directly by email
podcastendlehill.org
that's
podcastendalhill.org or share

(10:54):
your thoughts on Instagram, Facebook or
X. Look for Indo Hill Seed on these
social media platforms
once a month. You and I can also connect through Pendle
Hills Online Worship Time I attend this virtual
Quaker meeting on the last Friday of the month which
begins at 8:30am Eastern Time.

(11:14):
For login details,
visit pendlehill.org Explore
Worship that's pendlehill.org
Explore worship Our
podcast is a project of Pendle Hill, a
Quaker center open to all for spirit led learning,
retreat and community. We're located in Wallingford,
Pennsylvania on the traditional territory of the Lenni

(11:36):
Lenape people. We host retreats,
workshops and lectures all year round. For a
complete list of these upcoming education opportunities, visit
uh pendlehill.org
learn this mini episode of the Seed was
produced by Peterson Toscano, who also co
hosts the Quakers Today Podcast. Lucas Meyer
Lee, a Quaker Volunteer Service Fellow, provided

(11:58):
other production assistance.
Our theme music is the I Rise Project by Reverend
Retta Morgan and Bennett Kuhn, produced by
Astronautical Records.
Our music today comes from Epidemic Sound.
This includes the beautiful track at the end of my talk with
Riyam The song is Ada by the Sara
Trio.
This is a group of musicians with.

(12:20):
Roots in three parts of the Middle East.
One of the members, Ahmad Al Khatib.
Was born in 1974 in a Palestinian
refugee camp in Jordan.
Learn more about Ahmad and the Sada.
Trio at ahmad al khatib
music.com
the Seed podcast is made possible by the

(12:41):
generous support of the Thomas H. And Mary
Williams Shoemaker Fund. Thank you. If you
find these conversations meaningful, consider supporting
our work financially. To do so, visit
pendlehill.org donate
these seeds could not be planted without you.
Let's co create a world filled with cooperation,

(13:02):
reciprocity
and
that's podcast at Pendle oh
loud motorcycle
motorcycleindlehill.org

(13:24):
Any
thanks
to.

>> Peterson Toscano (13:33):
Dwight
Dunstan,
Dr.
Riyam Khafri Abullaban and the team at
Pendle Hill.
Please subscribe to the Seed
Conversations for Radical Hope. They have a

(13:56):
back ah catalog of four seasons
of excellent episodes, including one with Rabbi
Mordecai Liebling from Rabbis for
Ceasefire. This is a powerful and
moving Conversation. You will find a link
to the seed in our show notes. Just visit
quakerstoday.org

(14:18):
if you want to read short
stories that touch on themes and topics
popular with Quakers. Definitely check out the November
2024 issue of UH Friends Journal.
The fiction issue includes the short story Bread
of Life by Vicki Winslow. Last year we
featured Vicky in her short story Sabbatical.

(14:40):
After meeting Vicky and reading her work, I was
inspired to write a Quaker themed short story of my
own. I'm pleased to announce that Friends Journal
accepted it. The story is about a Quaker
meeting in rural Pennsylvania during an
extremely dry summer. In a Quaker meeting where
numbers are dwindling and the worship is tired,
the members suddenly experience fresh

(15:02):
air. A group of young people
from a nearby eco commune
rent the meeting space for
weekly ecstatic dance parties.
This is a catalyst for conflict,
revelations and an unexpected outpouring of the
spirit. My short story is called
Penn Spring. You can

(15:25):
read it along with Vicki Winslow's story Bread of
Life and other short stories
[e-mail]
you'll find a link in the show notes. Before
we wrap up, I have a question for you.
What novel, film or television
series changed your relationship with the
world? Fiction definitely can

(15:46):
shift how we see ourselves, others and the world
at large. I would love to hear what
stories have had this sort of impact on your
life. Leave a voicemail with your
answer at uh, 317 Quakers.
That's 317 Quakers.
Or respond via uh, our social media,

(16:06):
Instagram X or TikTok.
On December 17,
2024, Miche McCall will
be back and together we will host the
premiere of UH, Season four of Quakers
Today.
In that first episode we're going to dive into the

(16:27):
topic of spiritual optimism and
pessimism. Thank
you for listening to this special episode
of Quakers Today. You can follow us on
TikTok, Instagram and X. You
will find full transcript of this episode and
more at our show Notes. Just visit
Quakers today.org

(16:49):
Thank you Friends. I look forward to being with
you again real soon.