BMH-BJ Synagogue in Denver was buzzing with energy Thursday evening as more than 700 Jewish women united to celebrate the Jewish day of rest together.
The Great Challah Bake Colorado — inspired by The Shabbat Project, which began in South Africa in 2013 — has been in Denver for four years and is a part of a grassroots global movement that spans more than 1,100 cities.
The Shabbat Project encourages the Jewish communities worldwide to participate in Shabbat together on a specific Friday each year. Jews observe the sabbath — or Shabbat, the weekly day of rest — from sundown Friday evening to nightfall Saturday.
“Itap all about unity,” volunteer Talia Haykin said. “You’ll find women in this room who’ve never baked a challah a day in their life. You’ll find women who bake every Friday. You’ll find multiple generations.
“Itap just every spectrum you could think of within a community — we’ve got it in the room,” she said.
Sarah Drexler of Denver came out Thursday evening to participate in her second event. She makes challah with her family almost every week.
“I just love seeing all the women from all different parts of our Jewish community,” Drexler said.
“All different denominations and friends from all across the spectrum.”
Her daughter, 9-year-old Adina, began to help bake challah at age 3, “when she was big enough to stand next to me and put her hands in the dough,” Drexler said.
“I just love having her see all these women come together, itap a really special experience,” she said.
Molly Horowitz, a 10-year-old who attends Hillel Academy of Denver, attended for the first time with a friend.
Molly said she bakes challah every other month and was excited to do it as a group. She said she makes decent braids.
“I caught on pretty quickly,” she said. “I can do a four-braid but not any more complicated than that.”
Haykin described the event as a very simple project with a ritual and a methodology to it.
She explained that though “challah” means a loaf of bread, it also is the ritual of taking a piece of dough from the loaf, blessing the piece — a common blessing for is “Klal Yisrael,” which means, “All of Israel” — and then burning it separately in the oven.
The Great Challah Bake Colorado was organized by Devora Leah Popack. Chaviva Gordon-Bennett, who does digital marketing for The Jewish Experience, said she hoped people would extend the communal experience of baking together by coming to shabbat dinner at BMH-BJ Synagogue Friday night .
The challah bake, she said, “really brings nonobservant or nonreligious Jews out of the woodwork.”
