Stacie Hofheimer Moss, Marcia Hofheimer, and Bonnie Brand.
The Fifth Annual Great Big Challah Bake offered a chance to learn and experience the joy and mitzvah of making challah. Chaired by darcy Bloch, B’nai israel Congregation invited all Jewish women to participate in this event, which took place last month at the synagogue.
From varied backgrounds, the women who attended ranged from children to seniors, religiously observant to secular, affiliated to unaffiliated, first timers to regular Challah Bake attendees. Tables were filled with friends, sisters, mothers, daughters, and grandmothers—all coming together to share in the uniquely Jewish experience of baking challah.
“Challah is made up of individual strands that come together to form a beautiful, delicious unit. Similarly, the Jewish people is formed by many unique individuals, and we all operate as a part of something larger. When we come together as a group to do a mitzvah and celebrate our Jewishness, we actually become one beautiful, cohesive unit!” said Chamie Orbach-Haber, as she shared insight about why challah is so different than other bread.
Beth, Layla, and Maria Dorsk.
The Great Big Challah Bake is held in hundreds of communities around the world each year, with tens of thousands of women participating. it’s a lead up to the Shabbat Project, an even larger global observation. Held this year, November 15–16, B’nai Israel Congregation hosted the events for Tidewater.
The Challah Bake is a fulfillment of the High Holiday prayer, V’yei’asu chulam agudah achat la’asot retzonecha b’leivav shalem “And may we all come together as one community to do G-d’s will with a full heart.”
For information or to get involved with future initiatives of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Jewish Innovation office, contact Sierra Lautman, director, at SLautman@ujft.org or 965-6107.