By Bayla Sheva Brenner<\/p>\n
On the night of October 21st, more than 2000 Jewish women filled Brooklyn\u2019s Grand Prospect Hall for Project Inspire\u2019s Great Big Challah Bake in a quest to make the world\u2019s largest challah.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal was to create an event to unify Jewish women around the concept of challah,\u201d said Rabbi Yaakov Giniger, director of programming for Project Inspire, the Jewish outreach organization that arranged the event. \u201cWith what\u2019s going on in the world, the Jewish people need to come together, especially around such a holy mitzvah (commandment).\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to the joint efforts of Project Inspire and OU Kosher, the crowd witnessed the unveiling of the world\u2019s largest challah, a Guinness World Record\u201420 feet long, freshly baked, and certified kosher by the Orthodox Union. Challahs are the braided loaves of bread traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath.<\/p>\n
Making the world\u2019s largest challah wasn\u2019t an easy feat. Soon into the project, Rabbi Giniger ran into a glitch. Although Brooklyn-based Strauss Bakery\u2019s professional team was ready and eager to braid the giant strands of dough, they couldn\u2019t provide an oven large enough to bake it.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Giniger turned to his neighbor, Rabbi Leonard Steinberg, an OU Kosher Rabbinic Coordinator, who put him in touch with Rabbi Yisroel Bendelstein. As a rabbinic coordinator for a number of commercial bakeries, Rabbi Bendelstein knew the right address for the colossal challah: Damascus Bakery, an OU-certified pita factory that produces 11,000 pitas and flatbreads an hour. Edward Mafoud, one of the owners, not only consented, but offered the bakery\u2019s industrial state-of-the art long-tunnel oven free of charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was delighted to be part of such a novel idea,\u201d said Rabbi Bendelstein. So much so, Mafoud had expert engineers adjust the oven\u2019s band speed and temperature in order to accommodate the huge challah. The hefty challah also required four men to braid it, custom-made trays to bake it and a moving company to transport it.
\nAs Chanalee Fischer, the entrepreneur behind \u201cThe Challah Fairy\u201d challahs, demonstrated the steps involved in challah preparation on stage, loudspeakers and screens, thousands of green-gloved women and 200 challah coaches kneaded their individual bowls of dough. A portion of each participant\u2019s challah was then joined to the giant challah.
\nSome worked in silence. 11 deaf women, members of Our Way, the OU\u2019s program for the Jewish deaf, busied their hands not only to work the dough, but also to sign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to be here and be a part of this,\u201d signed Betty Kasher, a deaf attendee.<\/p>\n
While waiting for everyone\u2019s dough to rise, Chani Juravel, noted Torah lecturer, gave the aproned assemblage a minute to send up a prayer. The room\u2019s happy chatter suddenly fell still and airborne, heartfelt requests quickly filled up the space.<\/p>\n
The challah bake also unified Jewish generations. Mrs. Mirca Itzkowitz, a Holocaust survivor, took the stage and recited the Hebrew blessing over the ritual separating of a portion of challah to a rousing communal \u201cAmen!\u201d Her granddaughter, Gitty Itzkowitz, standing beside her, translated it into English.<\/p>\n
Katherine Khozheva, 29, who heard about the Great Big Challah Bake from the kiruv (Jewish outreach) organization RAJE (Russian Jewish American Experience), proudly held up her challah\u2014the first she ever made. \u201cI just came back from Poland and Israel in June,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to learn how to make challah. It\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then, the big moment arrived. A challah that nearly covered the full width of the stage lay on a table before an astounded audience. Alex Angert, official Guinness World Records adjudicator, presented Rabbi Chaim Sampson, director of Project Inspire, with a framed Guinness World Records certificate. Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Chief Operating Officer of OU Kosher, proudly stood by.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are always on the lookout for exciting new records,\u201d said Angert. \u201cParticularly ones that represent the spirit of people coming together to achieve a greater good. This was the perfect attempt for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OU was thrilled to be part of this event,\u201d said Rabbi Elefant. \u201cThe energy in the room was incredible and we were happy to facilitate the baking of the challah and the certification. Hopefully it will go a long way in bringing our brothers and sisters closer to observing Shabbos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the love!\u201d shouted Shimi Adar, popular Orthodox Zumba instructor and the event\u2019s exuberant emcee. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, or where you\u2019re holding in your life; we are all here together!\u201d<\/p>\n
Music blasted from the speakers and everyone took to their feet, breaking into jubilant dancing. Arm in arm they circled around the tables and through the ballroom singing, cheering, and celebrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the time of my life,\u201d said Suzi Basch of Boro Park as she headed for home. \u201cIt was a moment of unity with Jews of every stripe.\u201d
\nThe participants filed out of the Hall into the Brooklyn streets, exchanging numbers and long goodbyes. They held fast to their challahs and to the indelible impact of that night, when, in this reporter\u2019s opinion, 2,200 hearts became one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bayla Sheva Brenner On the night of October 21st, more than 2000 Jewish women filled Brooklyn\u2019s Grand Prospect Hall for Project Inspire\u2019s Great Big Challah Bake in a quest to make the world\u2019s largest challah. \u201cOur goal was to create an event to unify Jewish women around the concept of challah,\u201d said Rabbi Yaakov […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n