By David Wise

UConn Hillel students at the “Made in Tel Aviv” party.

Israeli disc jockey Eyal Rob had more than 100 young people dancing the night away at the “Made in Tel Aviv” party, held one recent Saturday night at the Tavern Downtown in Hartford.

Rob, who is also a music producer and professor of film at Tel Aviv University and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, raised passions and had the crowd on their feet with a repertoire of mostly Mizrahi – or Israeli-Mediterranean – music. Some party-goers incorporated large Israeli flags into their dance routines, wrapping the flag around themselves or waving it in rhythm to the beat. When they weren’t dancing, party-goers feasted on the traditional Israeli staples of pita, hummus and meat patties.

“This was the first time Moishe House and UConn Hillel collaborated on a social event,” said Raz Newman, director of Israel programs at the Mandell JCC in West Hartford, one of the three event organizers. “We will be schmoozing about similar events for the future.” Moishe House is the new pluralistic home-based community for young Jewish professionals located in West Hartford.

Algom Ben-Horin, Jewish Agency Israeli Fellow at UConn Hillel and a friend of Rob, helped promote the event at UConn and organized transportation. Ben-Horin explained the idea behind the party was to celebrate Israel and highlight the Jewish state’s diverse culture that “is rich with nightlife.”

“It’s important to realize how pluralistic and strong the Israeli society and liberal democracy are, which you can see through the lens of culture and music,” he said.

Many people living in Tel Aviv like to party, he added, because “in Israel, you don’t know what can happen tomorrow.”

Josh Squire, a junior political science major at UConn, praised the event for highlighting what he called “the cohesiveness of the young Jewish community.”

“Here we had a bunch of students from UConn Hillel and Moishe House, coming together as a Jewish community, not at just any random club, but through a Jewish medium represented by this Israeli DJ from Tel Aviv,” noted Squire. “And the music wasn’t just the pop music you hear today on the radio, the music DJ Eyal Rob played was modern Israeli music that embodies the vibrancy of Israeli culture, which the young Jewish people really respond to.”

As for Rob, he summed up the evening as a “hell of a party”. And the next day he stopped by UConn Hillel and the Mandell JCC to deliver talks on the vibrancy and liberalism of Tel Aviv’s daily life and popular culture.