Shabbos Project expansive and energised

This weekend, we’ll experience our tenth Shabbos Project since it was introduced in 2013. And, though it has become an annual event for South Africans, it’s growing in leaps and bounds around the world.

To mark the occasion, four former Sinai Indaba speakers – Rabbi Mordechai Becher, Nili Couzens, Slovie Jungreis-Wolff, and David Sacks – will be delivering inspirational talks at South African shuls and a number of Jewish schools, around this year’s Shabbos Project.

Events are happening across the community, involving 20 shuls, with communal dinners, lunches, tischs, special learning programmes, and havdalah concerts. About 4 000 women have booked for the Johannesburg challah bake, with close on 1 000 having attended the Cape Town equivalent.

This year’s Shabbos Project will see the launch of Shabbos Project 2.0 – the “Journey to 25 hours” – empowering Jewish families to keep Shabbos throughout the year.

Once again, South Africa will be joining Jews in more than 1 500 cities and 110 countries worldwide celebrating this year’s Shabbos Project. There will be more than 2 500 events taking place in cities across the globe, more than doubling pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels of participation.

In Israel, more than 250 000 participants are involved in The Shabbos Project thanks to an astonishing co-ordinated effort across civil society in more than 100 cities throughout Israel. Activities are taking place in schools, synagogues, and city centres, bridging the stark political and religious divides in Israeli society.

As one example, Zehut, an Israeli non-profit organisation focused on building Jewish identity among youth, will be organising Shabbos Project activities and classes for 135 000 students in secular government schools in 35 cities in Israel.

Hundreds of Jewish communities in North America are participating. In San Diego, 180 diverse Jewish organisations are co-ordinating events for the entire Jewish community.

In Los Angeles, the Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy is running 10 events for children and their families, including a block party Kabbalat Shabbos service in the streets and a Shabbos lunch in the school gym, while religious and secular families will pair up for Shabbos dinner.

Project Inspire will host its annual “Body and Soul Retreat” in New Jersey, with more than 500 Jews from all over the United States, Canada, and Israel gathering for an unforgettable Shabbaton experience.

In Strasbourg, France, 20 young Jewish refugees from Ukraine will attend a Shabbos dinner along with hundreds of local youth. The dinner is the highlight of a full Shabbaton programme for the refugees. Currently living in Germany and Switzerland, they will travel as far as 900km to the event and will be put up in a local hotel. Most have very little Jewish background, and special Russian-language Shabbos guides have been printed to help them make the most of the experience.

In South America, Buenos Aires will host a mass outdoor challah bake in a park for about 3 000 women. Other Shabbos Project events are happening in Córdoba, Argentina, Guatemala, and Chile.

New countries joining the project this year include Tahiti and Morocco, with events taking place in Casablanca in the build-up to Shabbos, culminating in a community-wide Shabbos meal.

“After two years of disrupted celebrations, there’s a real thirst for in-person events and real human connection,” Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein said. “The Shabbos Project is a direct response to the call of our times, a chance to re-energise, reconnect, and unite in celebration.”