“We want to inform students of diversity in Israel and all the cultures that are a part of it and all that it’s done for the world at large,” said Sam Appel, Jewish Student Union president and Residential College in the Arts and Humanities junior.

ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.

This is the sixth year ASMSU has sponsored Israel Fest. Events this year were centered on the theme of “Global Israel.”

Booths representing different aspects of Israel were arranged throughout the room. A booth showing Israel’s role as a global leader in environmental preservation gave away tree seeds.

Political science junior Nina Patchak said Israelis celebrate a holiday called T’bShvat, which honors trees.

“One huge thing for Israel is reforestation,” Patchak said. “There’s an actual (Israeli) holiday where everyone plants a tree.”

Students also had the opportunity to write a prayer or a message that will be taken to the Western Wall in Jerusalem by students traveling there for study abroad in the spring.

Placing a prayer or a message in the Western Wall is religiously meaningful because the wall touches the outer wall of the Temple Mount, food industry management junior David Kowalsky said.

“The fact that they’re (bringing a message to the wall) for you is very significant,” Kowalsky said. “If you go there and put a message (in the wall), your prayer will go directly to God.”

Bringing Jewish students together was an important part of the event because Jewish people sometimes are a minority in communities, psychology freshman Rena Molnar, who attended the event, said.

“Seeing all the Jewish students come together is really cool,” Molnar said. “To see such a big university and the large (Jewish) population there is really cool.”

Social work junior Casey Weiss, a MASA intern who explained the MASA study abroad program to students at Israel Fest, said the event also attracted people who were not familiar with Israeli culture.

“A lot of people at the door (are) not necessarily Jewish or have been to Israel,” Weiss said. “A lot of people just (came) to get a little taste of what Israel is and to learn a little bit about it.”

Appel said although the event cannot fully represent every aspect of Israel, it can help students understand the community and culture of the country.

“We’re doing our best to represent Israel but obviously we can’t get the exact beauty of Israel,” Appel said. “I think people are going to walk away from the (event) with a feeling of community that Israel has and that MSU has.”