Mega Challah Bake to bring together women, girls in Jewish tradition

Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel, 210 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta.

Registration and information: www.atlantachallahbake.com

Call it challah central.

For a few hours Wednesday, the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel will be rolling in dough.

More than 1,000 Jewish women and girls at least 16 years of age will gather at 7:15 p.m. to sprinkle, knead and braid loaves of bread as part of a communitywide bonding experience.

"When you bring together so many people for a positive purpose, it can have a very powerful effect," said Shifra Sharfstein, one of the organizers of the Mega Challah Bake. "We're doing something Jewish. We're doing something traditional. We will pray for anybody who needs a recovery or a blessing."

The event is a project of the Chabad centers in Georgia. Chabad is a movement within Hasidic Judaism.

Challah is a traditional Jewish egg bread, steeped in symbolism, that is served during holidays and on Shabbat. (The seventh day of the Jewish week is considered a day of rest and spiritual renewal.) Challah is usually braided.

Sharfstein, co-director of the Jewish student center at Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, has fond memories of helping her grandmother make challah and learning the different braiding techniques. “It was a wonderful bonding experience,” she said.

Now, she does the same with her daughters. “It’s one of their favorite activities.”

“Bread was part of the Temple ritual,” said Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer associate professor of classical Judaism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Bread was a dietary staple, so it makes sense. In Judaism today, there is still a blessing for bread but not one for meat.”

All the ingredients for the mega bake will be provided, including flour, sugar, water, oil, yeast, eggs and toppings such as sesame and poppy seeds and cinnamon.

Participants will make the bread at their respective tables and then take it home to bake.

Initially, the group planned to hold the event at another hotel, but the response was so great they moved it to the Westin.

It’s not the first mega event. Recently, more than 350 people participated in the Great Big Challah Bake at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, which was also sponsored by Congregation Ariel.

“It’s a way to integrate spirituality within the family,” said Rabbi Brian Glusman, who added men and women signed up for the event. The braiding of the bread “represents the connection we feel to one another, especially during the Shabbat.”