What’s so GREAT about the GREAT CHALLAH BAKE

By BJLife/Mrs. Yael Zelinger
Posted on 10/13/16

Updates and Reassurance from an Insider

Maybe it’s my Boro Park upbringing but I love interfacing with Jews of all stripes! For the past seventeen years, I have been working at the Macks Center for Jewish Education, whose staff is a fabulously eclectic group of professionals, and I enjoy our unlikely conversations.  When Baltimore decided to get on board with the world-wide Shabbos project, we joined a loose network of Jews from 365 different cities who were all inspired by the concept of keeping one Shabbos as one people and I was inspired to “mix in”!

While the Baltimore Shabbat Project’s foundation is unity, the Great Challah Bake’s reason d’être is uniting Jewish women around the mitzvah of Challah. This admirable goal speaks to my soul, as it combines mitzvos, unity and femininity. Being in a room with thousands of Jewish women where boundaries melt makes me feel exhilarated! A project that has grown from 1,000 to 3,800 and hopefully to 4,000 Jewish women this year, gives me goose bumps and drives me, on a hectic Monday morning, to contact the new audio-visual company, email the program committee  and sit down at a computer to compose an article.

The Great Challah Bake has grown in more than numbers, the committees have diversified, the number of volunteers has exploded and the vision to create an event that is meaningful to everyone in the community has evolved to a new level of sensitivity.

This year the program committee hired a master of ceremonies, Yaffa Palti, of Aish haTorah renown, to set a tone of singing, spirituality and sisterhood. Yaffa just moved from Mexico to San Diego and will be flying in to bring us her unique surge of energetic fun, musical talent and warmth. Linda Hurwitz, the new Associated chair and veteran BSP participant, will welcome us and set the tone for an exciting evening. The program will be set to an all Jewish music selection whose volume will be tempered to evoke excitement and camaraderie, fun and festivity, sanctity and …Shabbos. Together we will mix and knead. Together we will dance and sing. Together we will bless, pray and bond to each other, to the mitzvah of challah and to Hashem.

Last year we had over 300 responses to the request for feedback last year and we read every one of them! The devoted committees are working extremely hard to make this year’s experience smooth and efficient, fun and meaningful, safe and accessible, kosher and inviting. Hours and hours have gone into hashing out every single detail!  Every element is important because we know that if someone cannot navigate the registration site or cannot park or cannot understand the speaker, or cannot hear herself over the speaker or cannot find gloves or eggs or a table, then the Great Challah Bake will not be the GREAT event we all want to look forward to.

Here is a sneak peak at some of the details you can expect at The Great Challah Bake 5777:

• TRANSPORATION:
  • There will be buses leaving from 3 convenient locations. Pre-registration is required. $5 per person:
    • Owings Mills JCC:  3506 Gwynbrook Ave, 21117
    • Baltimore Hebrew Congregation: 7401 Park Heights Avenue, 21208
    • Beth El: 8101 Park Heights Avenue, 21208

• There will be limited parking at the Arrow Parking Garage on 210 W Baltimore Street for $5 a car. Carpools are strongly suggested.

• The Light Rail stops right at the Baltimore Convention Center

• Greeters in lime green t-shirts will be stationed along the blocks from the parking lot to the BCC to keep everyone feeling safe and welcome.
• Reserved tables for groups of 9 women are available for $136 and will be situated up front, near the stage.
• Ushers will help everyone find a table and mingle with new women.
• Following the Star K’s guidelines, once again, individuals will NOT be taking Challah except for the people on stage who will make one big batch of dough. This is the way we were advised by Rabbi Heber shlita”h.
• Security will be adeptly handled by Mr. Franky Storch whose in depth understanding of security, both visible and undercover, (and sometimes canine too!) is virtually unsurpassed among laymen.
• We expect to sell out, so get your tickets today! $10 in advance, $20 the day of the event.

For a GREAT time, Schedule yourself to be at The Great Challah Bake on Wednesday, November 9

Registration is open so sign up quickly! www.baltimoreshabbatporject.org. If you have any questions please email info@baltimoreshabbatproject.org