I had the true pleasure of speaking with a cross-section of 3500 of my Jewish “sisters”—most of whom were total strangers to me and most everyone else in the room--as they mixed, kneaded, and braided their Shabbat challahs, and danced, sang, and shared bits of their lives while waiting for their dough to rise. It was thrilling to experience the synergy, energy and mutual love and respect that was palpable. To me, it felt like a Jewish oasis, much like Shabbat, itself, which has held our people together as one for three millennia. 

I regret not having the opportunity to meet and speak to every participant in the room about their Challah Bake experience; this is but a sampling of their take on the Baltimore Shabbos Project’s Great Challah Bake…

The youngest Challah Bake baker that I met was 2-year-old, Sarah Kass, of Owings Mills, who really got into the egg cracking part of the recipe. She was accompanied by her mother, Carri, and family friends, at Table #92. The first-time participants heard about the event through the media and the JCC-Owings Mills. “I came because it is a family-friendly event and quality time with my daughter and my good friend, “said Carri, “and I am learning how to make challah, and enjoying a Jewish event. It is going to be our new tradition that we are starting with family and friends.”

Margi Granek, another first-time participant from Owings Mills, a member of Beth Israel Congregation, shared, “It’s amazing; I’m very excited to be here. It is very overwhelming and I think it is fabulous that all these Jewish women from all different sections came together to do the Challah Bake. It is wonderful to see everyone together having fun and getting along.”

While hustling from table to table--before 8,000 eggs were cracked open and 6,000 pounds of flour and 10,000 ounces of oil were poured into individual mixing bowls to make the two traditional challahs from scratch (baked at home!) in preparation for Shabbos--I took a break to listen to Linda Hurwitz, The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore chair of the board, as she took the stage. She shared a story which she heard over a 2015 Shabbat Project Shabbos meal, which inspired her to “upgrade” her previously haphazard Shabbos candle lighting experience.

“I learned that I can love my Shabbos even more than I did, because together all Jewish women light Shabbos candles as one people with one heart at one time. What a special gift I was given from the Shabbat Project!

“But, wait a minute,” Mrs. Hurwitz continued to address the audience, “there’s something for you in this. It’s now your turn. How about giving yourself a lifetime gift by falling in love with something you learned about Shabbat at this year’s Shabbos Project, and incorporating it within your weekly Shabbat celebration. I have a friend who only gives her children sugary cereals Shabbat morning. I have another friend who makes potato kugel for her four girls Friday for Shabbat and it is always special and meaningful. Another friend of mine said that her parents made her feel Shabbat was like “chocolate milk”. How are you going to make your Shabbos holy, special and different? How are you going to differentiate those 25 hours from all the others? Here are some ideas: Whether it is making challah—starting right now—whether it is special wine on Friday night; a special tablecloth; wearing a special outfit. Make it special with whatever it is. Just like me, you will be giving you and yours a lifetime gift of a personal Jewish value of Jewish tradition, of Jewish ritual. That way, you will be learning, loving, and giving. Can it ever get better than that? I don’t think so.”

A subsequent highlight of the evening was the announcement that Pikesville participant Yael Ziv, a seventh grade student at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School and a member of Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim, will be writing a book about the mitzvah of challah in celebration of her Bas Mitzvah. Yael shared her table with her mother, Lisa, little sister, Allison, and her teacher, Morah Faigie Friedman, among others.

“Morah Friedman and Yael have been learning for years to prepare for Yael’s bat mitzvah,” explained Yael’s mother, who joined Yael at her table together with Yael’s younger sister, Allison. “Every time they learn, they bake challah afterwards. So, we are putting together a book about the mitzvah of making challah that Yael wants to call, “The Power of Challah”. We’ve made challah for special reasons--in memory of her aunt when she died and for the recovery of Coby Rosemore. We also make challah in the shape of a turkey for Thanksgiving.”

Yael became a Bat Mitzvah last December; her family will soon celebrate her twin brother’s Bar Mitzvah  with a Shabbat dinner; he will read from the Torah, Shabbos morning.

Another Pikesville resident, Sari Glazer, heard about the event from her friend. “I wanted to share the experience with my mother and thousands of other Jewish women,” says Sari, who is excitedly looking forward to her upcoming first-time Israel trip with the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP) to experience the spiritual side of being with women and celebrating togetherness and sisterhood which she feels is so important. “The Challah Bake is amazing; I can’t wait to do it again… I’m meeting friends I haven’t seen in a long time. It’s just incredible.

“My youngest is in a Jewish day school at the JCC in Owings Mills and he’s been coming home asking me for Shabbat every Friday night, which is amazing for us, as well,” continues Sari, who says she is excited to start having Shabbos dinners at home with her family. “So, I am excited to bring this challah home and bake it for my children, as well.”

As DJ Balagan kept the Jewish music rolling, as line dances snaked throughout the 400 tables, while yet others were still kneading and braiding, singing and swaying, I met Kay Green, of Pikesville, as she was vigorously kneading her challah dough with a passion. “I think it’s wonderful. I’m very excited and I’m anxious to see the end result.”

At a nearby table was second-time Challah Bake participant, Robyn Hoffman, who told me, “I’m loving every second. There’s so much unity here and I love being with everybody. It’s wonderfully organized and it’s so much fun to be with so many Jewish women from all over the community. I’m meeting new people.”

Merav Levine, a JCC employee, has been involved with the Shabbos Project since its inception, three years ago. This year, she was the co-chair for the community sponsored “Shabbat Through the Senses” Shabbos Project event, held on Sunday. As she was preparing her dough, she told me, “There were about 500-600 people there and it was energetic and everyone was pumping for Shabbat; it was amazing.”

Challah Bake attendee, Pelia Werth, originally from North London, England, traveled all the way from Arlington, Virginia, for her first-time Challah Bake experience. Although she mentioned the Challah Bake and Shabbos Project held in her native country, she explained that it is not on the scale as those events in Baltimore. “It’s a very interesting experience. It’s really great seeing Jewish women of all backgrounds coming together in such numbers. It’s a very noble experience.”

Arica Hiller of Pikesville was invited to go to the Challah Bake by her mother; they were joined by other relatives who attended the event. “It’s very interesting,” said Arica. “It’s very different. I’ve never been in a room with this many Jewish women before. It’s really awesome! I knew there was a large Jewish community in Baltimore, living in Pikesville, but it’s not quite the same as being in this room.”

One of the relatively few people I did recognize at the Challah Bake was Ner Tamid Montessori Preschool director Noa Goldman. It was her second time at the Challah Bake. “It’s a beautiful thing, “ Mrs. Goldman relates about her experience. She contrasted the challah she makes at home with that of the Challah Bake: “It’s the place that makes these challahs rise—the togetherness, the people, the neshama, the simcha, and the beauty.”

When I asked Cindy Zonies, who retired last week from working as director of resident services at Weinberg Senior Living, how she heard about the Challah Bake, she retorted, “How did I hear? How did I not hear about the Challah Bake?” As she was performing her first good deed after retirement, she continued, “I read about it last year and saw the video and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to have fun with all these women. I’m having a great time. We have the best table captain; she’s lovely.”

Cindy’s table captain was Susan Stutman, from the Greenspring area. When I asked her about her experience, she answered, “I thought it was going to be a little daunting; but I’m having a great time.”

Nine-year-old Sophie Messing, a fourth-grade student at Beth Tfiloh, could not contain her excitement about the Challah Bake. “I like that there is a bunch of women coming together and I’m having a fun time.” Her classmate, Sunny Diamond, has been participating in the Challah Bake since its inception, told me, “I like this experience because people are coming together and even if you are not modern Orthodox or Orthodox, you can come together and do a mitzvah.” Sarit Goldstein, a 10-year-old Beth Tfiloh student said she enjoyed her Challah Bake experience because “everyone is coming together as one.”

Goldy Kahn, mother of Yael Zelinger who was on the Challah Bake Committee, traveled from the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, New York to attend. She stopped me to say, “There is a tremendous spirit. Most interestingly, there are people here from all walks of life—Orthodox, Conservative, Reform—feeling as one. I’m here with my two granddaughters and I am having a wonderful time.”

The Challah Bake also provided the perfect venue for many a reunion. Over the din of the crowd, I was lucky to hear Seffie Schwartz introduce me to her long-lost friend and Johns Hopkins Hospital coworker, Ellen Rosenthal, whom she “happened” to meet at the event—in addition to another friend/former coworker, Pam, who was a Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Challah Bake volunteer. “I had not seen these women for about 25 years,” recalled Seffie. “I was so excited to see them.” When her friends saw Seffie’s name on the list of Challah Bake ticket holders, they were excited and thought there was only a glimmer of hope to find her in the throng of bakers. Shortly after, Seffie miraculously appeared, before she even stepped foot into the hall where the event was held.

Laila Soltz, of Silver Spring, formerly of Damascus, Syria, joined her daughter, Danielle, a seventh grade student at the Hebrew Academy, and her schoolmates who came to the Challah Bake. “I came because when I say the bracha on the challah, I do it in my house and my daughter sees me, but there are powerful moments at this time when we are all together with women unity and ahava. That’s what we came for, and we hope that Hashem listens to our tefilah and forgives us and unites us and makes us greater people and a greater nation.” Last year, Laila even traveled to the Sefardi community in Brooklyn, New York, with her sister, to join in their Challah Bake. “I recommend it to everyone who wants to have a good experience about who we are as a Jewish people. Just do it because it changes lives and makes you feel good.”

Jordyn Miller, a Frederick native who relocated to Baltimore two years ago, is a pre-school teacher at Ohr Chadash Academy. She was baking with a group of her friends from the Frederick community. “I did not grow up with so much Jewish unity, so for me it is unbelievable to see this many Jewish women to dance and celebrate for the simple fact of being a Jewish woman.” Jordyn feels that Rabbi Morris/Moshe Kosman, z”l, her shul rabbi who recently passed away, gets the merit from all of the hundreds and hundreds of Jewish families he brought closer to Torah; the entire Shorash community is because of Rabbi Kosman. In fact, Jordyn’s sister is keeping her first Shabbos, ever, in Frederick this Shabbos.

After Jordyn, I met up with (and offered to take the picture of) two close friends, who I mistook for sisters--Giselle Pincaver, a native of Argentina who lives in Owings Mills, and Negin Hariri, formerly of Persia, who now lives in Pikesville.

“It’s really nice when all these thousands of Jewish women and girls come together; it’s so wonderful,” says Giselle, who says there is nothing like the smell of her homemade challah she makes every week. Looking upwards she continued, “It’s like a blessing that we are all together, being in one place.”

I only met up with Giselle and Negin because I was tipped off about and looking for seven uniformed midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Jewish Midshipmen Club, in Annapolis. I finally found them, but only after they were called up to be recognized on stage.

“This is our first time at the event and my first time making challah, as it is for a lot of us here,” said Holly Sandler, the Senior Midshipman in charge of the event for the Jewish Midshipmen Club led by Rabbi Yonaton Warren. “It’s just a really cool experience to see (and speak to) all these really incredible women here, all together, united under Judaism. The atmosphere is incredible. We’re really enjoying it. It’s great to be here and we would love to come back next year.”

I also had the good fortune of speaking to Junior Midshipman Adeana Steinlauf, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, who remarked, “Thank you so much for having us. We are having such a great time. The environment has been so open, so friendly with us; we met so many people. It’s just a great experience. I never made challah before; at my high school the only other Jew was my brother.”

As this unforgettable event came to a close, I met Eeta Travis, a second grade teacher at Beth Tfiloh, and her daughters, who moved to Baltimore from Savannah, Georgia, about a year ago. Eeta volunteered for the Savannah Challah Bake when she resided there, which drew a crowd of about 200.

Eeta’s daughter, Huvie, a sophomore at Bais Yaakov of Baltimore High School, added, “The Challah Bake in Savannah was much smaller and there was much more individual attention there, but this is amazing. I am so inspired. It is really, really, really cool to know that we are all from different walks of life and we are all part of this one amazing thing.”

Before I knew it, the Challah Bake that I had looked forward to since last year was gone—in a poof (of flour!) On the way back to Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, I asked my bus seatmate, Torah Institute of Baltimore tutor/mentor (and great-grandmother!) Leni Broder, what she thought of her first-time experience.

“I thought it was the most beautiful thing. I spent a long time just looking at all of the tables and everybody there, the happy faces, and the unity of so many of us. I wish that we could have one additional event during the year—not necessarily a Challah Bake--that would bring us all together as one unified unit. Despite the large number of people who were there, it was so personable. There were thousands of people but you felt each person in your heart; it was totally inclusive. It wasn’t like people were making an effort because it was the right or proper thing to do; there was a real bonding. People were genuinely interested in people who walked past their table, and people were walking over to people at other tables. It was a feeling of wonderment. I wasn’t the only Bubby there, and I heard children going up to other Bubbies asking, “Can you tell me how to do this; can you help me?’ It was  true bonding of people of all ages, stages, and completely different backgrounds. I saw people accepting, loving, and being interested in other people with whom they ordinarily would have nothing in common.”

I also asked Lisette Young, who traveled from Silver Spring, about her first-time experience. “I’m very, very impressed. It was so warm and wonderful to share it with my daughter, granddaughter, and mechatainista [who happens to be yours truly, by the way!] It was beautiful, the music was nice, I danced and had a great time.”

Before disembarking the bus, I asked Pamm Peterson, of Lutherville, who volunteered to be the bus captain for four busses that departed from her synagogue, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, what she thought of the Challah Bake. “I love it because it brings together women from all the different denominations of being Jewish. We all get along and it’s lovely; everyone is made to feel comfortable.”