By Sarah Natchipolsky
The Jewish Student Union hosted a Dead Sea Spa night using beauty products made with salt and mud from the landmark body of water on Thursday evening.
The Dead Sea is a lake bordered by Israel and Jordan, famous for its extremely high salinity. The mud is rich in minerals and the salt and mud are known for their benefits for the skin.
Participants could apply mud masks or make their own salt scrub during the event located at Maryland Hillel. Towards the end of the evening, students played an online quiz game with questions about the Dead Sea.
The JSU’s Vice President of Education, Danielle Firer, said she came up with the idea to host the spa night as a way to combine cultural education about the Dead Sea with relaxation in the weeks between midterms and finals.
“If we’re not taking care of ourselves mentally, then we can’t take care of ourselves in all the other aspects,” Firer said.
Mia Kaufman, the JSU’s president, said that every year, the union hosts a festival for Israel Independence Day. Last year, one of the most popular tables at the festival was a similar Dead Sea spa station. The union decided to expand on that station and turn it into its own event.
“The Dead Sea is like a staple place in Israel that like everyone goes to when they travel there,” Kaufman said. “We thought it’d be a good way for students to de-stress … and also learn more about the Dead Sea.”
Zach Caplan, a junior government and politics major, attended the event to see his friends in the JSU and participate in the self-care activities.
“I came here to just have a good time, not think about classes, midterms, exams, all that stuff,” Caplan said. “And to take some time for myself.”
Sapir Frieman was in charge of the educational portion of the spa. Frieman is Hillel’s Israel fellow – she was born in Israel and works for Hillel to teach students about the country.
“You want to find a way to show and tell and not just talk about it,” she said.
The quiz game incorporated facts about uses for the salt, the danger of flooding at the lake and the need for conservation.
Frieman said that the sea’s water levels receded in recent years due in part to the mining of minerals as well as the arid climate of the Middle East. She warned that if students lack knowledge of the problem and desire to combat the issue, the Dead Sea could disappear entirely in the coming years.