Rockland is Back as Part of the Worldwide Challah Bake's Million Plus Participants

by M.C. Millman

Rocklanders are once again eagerly looking forward to the uplifting experience that has made the Shabbat Project's annual Worldwide Challah Bake the incredible success it has been since its inception.

While the Challah Bake during COVID had to go virtual, the sorely missed event is back for the public and bigger and better than ever. With a focus on the intergenerational aspect of baking challah, this year's Great Big Rockland Challah Bake is open to all Rocklanders from every walk of life. Mothers, daughters, grandmothers, all of those who want to experience what it's like to be a part of something so big that the number of attendees continues to rise annually, like the challah dough, are all invited to be a part of something huge.

Rockland first participated in the novel annual Worldwide Challah Bake in 2015 after Debby Jacobson, ASHAR principal, and Jacquelin Borgen, ASHAR Early Childhood principal, made a momentous decision. That decision has since positively affected thousands of Rocklanders when the pair took on the Shabbat Project's Challah Bake. The event had just gone worldwide and was exactly what they were looking for.

"When we started doing the Challah Bake that first year," Debby Jacobson shares with Rockland Daily, "we felt very strongly that Monsey could really benefit from doing something to create more achdus. At the time, everyone was pretty much doing their own thing with their own people. What this event does, year after year is allow us to get the community together. It lets us see what we can accomplish as one unit - even if everyone in our room is not exactly the crowd you're used to."

The international annual Worldwide Challah Bake Event is heralded as one of the most ambitious Jewish identity initiatives ever undertaken. The project, which organizers estimate united 1 million people across more than 60 countries in its first global introduction in 2014, started as a local initiative in 2013 under South Africa's Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein.

Rabbi Goldstein has attributed the movement's enormous growth — from 1,800 partner groups around the world in 2014 to more than 5,000 in subsequent years, to its grassroots nature and social media appeal. Communities worldwide create inspirational programs for attendees to keep one Shabbos together. The idea is simple: Jews from all walks of life - from across the spectrum of religious affiliation, young and old, from all corners of the globe - come together to celebrate and keep one entire Shabbos. The event launches with the Challah Bake.

"Initially, we met with some women from  RCCS about doing something for cholim," Jacobson continues. "When we heard about the Shabbat Project and the Great Big Challah Bake, we discussed what a tremendous zechus it would be for women from all sectors of Judaism to come together to share in this special mitzvah and daven for cholim. This is still one of the most moving parts of the Challah Bake event today."

Rockland's event coordinators expect hundreds from all over Rockland County to connect during the challah bake. Participants will be able to knead, braid, dance, listen to words of inspiration, and pass on the beauty of the tradition of challah baking, including to children and grandchildren, all while making new friends in an atmosphere of welcoming achdus. The Challah Bake is an event that transcends the miles and brings together Jewish women from around the world, bringing the taste of Shabbas into the homes of families everywhere.

"Now, with the pandemic finally behind us," says South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, founder of the Shabbat Project and the Great Big Challah Bake, "there is a sense that this year's Shabbat Project is going to be the biggest yet. There is a real thirst for in-person events and real human connection – and the Shabbat Project is primed to be at the very center of that: a direct response to the call of our times, a chance to re-energize and reconnect, and come together in celebration."

The Great Big Rockland Challah Bake will take place at 360 New Hempstead Road in New Hempstead on Thursday, November 10, at 7:00 p.m. To register - go to https://www.ashar.org/challahbake.