Shabbat Project celebrated around the world

OWN CORRESPONDENT

New partner towns and cities include Devizes (United Kingdom), Kigali (Rwanda) and Bayonne (France). Afghanistan, Antigua, Barbuda and Papua New Guinea are the latest countries to join the project.

In the United States, there are more than 500 participating cities. This year will see “pink challah bakes” to raise breast cancer awareness in more than 20 US cities; a teen-led challah bake in Long Island with the young cooking sensation and Chopped winner, 14-year-old Rachel Goldzal; and a cross-border challah bake, bringing together the communities of South Bay (San Diego) and Tijuana (Mexico).

In Pittsburg, the scene of last year’s horror shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on the Shabbat Project weekend, partners are commemorating those killed in the attack with a moment of silence just before Shabbat comes in.

In Israel, the Shabbat Project has been endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and various celebrities and members of the Knesset. Partnerships with organisations such as the Ministry of Education’s Tarbut Toranit division; the digital educational platform, Hidabroot; and the national service programme, Sherut Leumi, are helping to bring the project to the entire country.

In Tel Aviv, an estimated 800 residents from all backgrounds will gather for Shabbat dinner at the city’s port. Meanwhile, the famous Tel Aviv steakhouse Meatos will host pre-Shabbat cocktails and also offer a special Shabbat Project take-home meal package.

In Jerusalem, the campus-based Nefesh Yehudi organisation is running a full 25-hour Shabbat for about 100 students, many of whom will keep Shabbat for the first time. Up north in Karmiel, a Friday night dinner in the municipal square is expected to draw 500 people of all backgrounds – Sabras and new immigrants, young and old, observant and not. Beit Aryeh-Ofarim resident Tsachi Amir has invited the entire town to a Shabbat dinner at his home.

This year, the Israeli Defence Forces are official partners of the Shabbat Project, with Kabbalat Shabbat celebrations and pre-Shabbat music concerts planned for five army bases.

In France, organisers are working alongside Jeremie Berrebi, the well-known tech mogul and former adviser to President Emmanuel Macron, to bring the Shabbat Project to more than 50 French cities.

In Gibraltar, a Friday night dinner is being catered exclusively for children between nine and 13 years old. 

In Brussels, five local organisations are joining forces for a very special challah bake for 400 women, including a live concert and a hip-hop dance show.

Vienna will be adding rugelach baking to the traditional challah bake, alongside a festival of events that includes a community dinner for 350 people, a Havdalah concert, special prayer services led by a well-known Israeli a cappella band, and an initiative that will see kids from Vienna’s main youth organisations, observant and not, keep Shabbat together.

Prague is co-ordinating a Shabbaton for 350 people, with a challah bake, unity services at two different synagogues, a Havdalah concert, and a post-Shabbat kosher wine-tasting event in memory of a local winemaker, who passed away on the weekend of last year’s Shabbat Project.

In Olomouc, a city in the Czech Republic, the 150-strong community will come together for a challah bake, Friday night dinner and Havdalah at the grand Olomouc synagogue, which was burnt to the ground by the Nazis and recently rebuilt.

In the UK, highlights include a cocktail party for young professionals at Chabad Borehamwood, and a challah bake at The Jewish Community Secondary School in New Barnet, London, for more than
1 500 students.

Sydney is again one of the most active partner cities in Australia, hosting a total of 125 events. Among them are 16 city-wide “headline events”, including a Shabbat Shuk that will bring “the tastes, smells and sounds of Machaneh Yehuda” to Sydney, and an attempt by the organisers to break the Guinness record for the world’s longest challah (it’s currently six metres).  

In South Africa, organisers have crafted beautiful Challah Date Boxes for friends and families to bake challah together at home. The boxes were sold out two weeks before this weekend’s event. There’s also the Adopt a Community campaign, with Jews in outlying “country communities” being hosted by families in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The popular Jewish folk band, Zusha, are performing open-air concerts at Shimmy Beach Club in Cape Town and a pre-Shabbat concert at a park in Glenhazel.

Elsewhere in Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana are all hosting Shabbat Project celebrations. US soldiers stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan are also gearing up to celebrate the Shabbat Project with the rest of the Jewish world. 

In South America, Argentina will again lead the charge, with close on 20 participating towns and cities. Highlights include a mass challah bake in Buenos Aires for 3 000 women, a Shabbat-themed art competition for the city’s Jewish day schools, and a Shabbat Fair in Cordoba that will unite the city’s four communities.

Jewish residents of Chaco, a small town with about 250 Jews, are kashering their kitchens in honour of the big Shabbat. And in Puerto Iguazu, home to the spectacular Iguazu Falls, the proprietor of a backpackers’ lodge will run a full Shabbat programme for a group of young Israeli backpackers travelling through the region.

In Lima, Peru, educators have incorporated the Shabbat Project into the school curriculum, while the small community of Iquitos (100 Jews) will gather for a Shabbaton and endeavour to keep Shabbat in full.

Mexico City is hosting the world’s first “mindfulness and meditation challah bake”. While preparing challah, participants will hear a guided meditation through a set of headphones.