YALLA!: At Duke University, a food truck offers kosher and halal choices.

Duke University will serve kosher food to its students for the first time ever. The concept was inspired by an odd friendship that developed between two school administrators, Rabbi Nossen Fellig and Imam Abdullah Antepli.

Antepli said: “As the leaders of the Muslim and Jewish communities, we were looking for creative ways to bring our communities together. No, no I did hope one day it would be a normal thing that a rabbi and an imam working in a food truck, but it’s unusual, which makes it really important”.

“Why should we just bring kosher? We should serve both communities, Muslim and Jewish, especially with tension over the last couple years, [we] thought it would be a good idea to work together on the project. We have some classes around the truck. We have a lunch and learn classes, so we look at it as more than just a food truck” Fellig mentioned.

According to Fellig and Antepli, their food truck was inspired by their friendship. They anticipate that the truck will encourage others to do the same. Yalla! is certified Halal and Glatt Kosher.

“What we are trying to achieve here in terms of Jewish-Muslim relations – it will inspire and exemplify cross faith and cross culture partnerships,” commented Antepli.