Jerusalem Women Try Vegan Challah

By COLlive reporter

Chabad of Baka in Jerusalem, directed by Rabbi Avraham and Nechama Dina Hendel, recently hosted a Unity Challah Bake event that brought together 150 women and girls from different backgrounds.

“At my table are mostly young women, at varied levels of religious observance judging by their sleeves or lack thereof,” noted Barbara Sofer in her article in the Jerusalem Post about the event and similar ones worldwide.

“One woman mentions that she already had three tattoos before she and her husband decided to become more religious. A teen and her mom say they make challah at home every week, but enjoy the experience of baking in a room full of challah-makers,” Sofer wrote.

Sofer, Israel director of public relations at Hadassah and an author, wrote that “in recent years, challah fests have become ubiquitous and popular, you might even say trendy.”

The event featured Racheli Fraenkel, Torah instructor and mother of Naftali Fraenkel hy’d, who was one of the three Jewish boys kidnapped and murdered by Arab terrorists in June 2014.

Hindel Swerdlov, dynamic educator and director of Shula’s library in Rechavia, led the crowd in vegan challah making. The atmosphere was energizing, as Hindel infused the process with Chassidic meaning and depth.

When the event concluded, Sofer wrote, “It’s time to go home, challah in hand, to bake at home. No two challahs are exactly alike. Unity, after all, isn’t uniformity.”