Sidney Gaen drove 38 miles from Baltimore County for this year’s Jewish Student Union-sponsored Israel Shuk, a celebration of Israel’s independence day that took place on Hornbake Mall April 29.

He sported a mint-green shirt complete with Hebrew letters — a memento his son, a university student, bought for him at last year’s shuk.

But a new university policy prohibiting outside vendors from selling products on the campus ruined Gaen’s celebration.

“Anything from Israel has special meaning to me — I am a tax payer, and I resent this,” Gaen said, adding that he brought money specifically to purchase items from Israel at the fair.

Members of the JSU, which sponsored the event, said not having vendors at the event did change it but emphasized what the real purpose was — celebrating Israel’s independence.

“Without the vendors, it is a little less exciting because it was nice for people to be able to support Israel by buying things,” said Karen Perolman, a senior Jewish studies major and JSU member, “but we thought of new creative ways to do things.”

The celebration featured camel rides to evoke the Negev, an Israeli desert, fortune tellers and Mendhi artists to represent the Middle East, and a climbing wall to symbolize Mount Masada and Jewish determination to be free.

“This event is about giving people a taste of things and showing there is more to Israel than the violence and the political crisis,” Shirah Rosin, the president of the JSU and a senior history and government and politics major, said.

Signs describing geographic areas of Israel dotted the edge of Hornbake Mall, and people snacked on Bomba, an Israeli snack. Elections for next year’s JSU officers also took place in front of a mock Knesset, a symbol of Israel’s voting democracy.

Rachel Sachs, a sophomore Jewish studies and education major and one of the organizers of the event, said she was happy with the turnout.

“The main goal of this is to have a fun day to celebrate the many different aspects of Jewish culture,” Sachs said. “I hope it’s been effective in educating people that Israel is more than violence.”

Stephanie Seidman, a senior neurobiology and physiology major, said the event usually draws many students, but the no-vendor policy may have deterred some from attending. “The falafel is usually a big draw,” Seidman said.

Some students agreed. Amy Kao, a senior pre-nursing major, said she had never been to a shuk, but it would have been good to be able to buy things. Others, like freshman zoology major Lauren Stanton, were content to ride the camels.

“I saw the camels lying in the grass, and I had to come,” Stanton said.

Sophomore government and politics major and JSU member Noah Allen was confident the event was a success.

“The main goal of today is to celebrate Israel’s independence day, and I think it went really well,” Allen said.