Update: The Senior Citizens Who Celebrate Shabbat at Wendy's

Last year we posted a story and a trailer about a short film called Wendy's Shabbat. It's about a group of Jewish senior citizens in Palm Desert, California who celebrate the weekly Shabbat at the local Wendy’s fast food restaurant with Hebrew blessings over (non-kosher) burgers and fries, presided over by a 97-year-old Reform rabbi.

The friends usher in the Sabbath by candlelight, with challah bread and grape juice (no wine at Wendy's) to complement their chicken nuggets, chili and fries. Shabbat is typically observed at home with family, but here these seniors share in the celebration of their religion at Wendy’s. The Wendy’s staff, somewhat tickled and honored to be the site of such ritual, arrange the restaurant tables into a long row and prepare milkshakes for each attendee.

This is a story of rediscovering the joys of community again in older age, and in the longing for ritual, however unorthodox and non-kosher it may be. There are themes of love, of ritual and of community -- all within the context of an adorable scene at Wendy’s.
The film has been making the rounds of many film festivals in 2018 and 2019 and has been a magnet for many comments, both positive and negative.

Here is our reaction to the comments, especially the ones critical of observing Shabbat this way:

Of course it’s not how to celebrate Shabbat. But instead of criticizing the participants, it’s an indictment of the Jewish community that they don’t provide a kosher alternative. With all the Chabads and JFSs and synagogues of all denominations, how can they let a group of elderly and infirm Jews with a spark of Yiddishkeit feel that the only way they can experience the joys of Shabbat is to celebrate Shabbat at Wendy’s?

Shame on the Jewish community. I hope that this film will be a wake-up call and that the organizations who shout “social justice” will create a meaningful, kosher, and fulfilling way for these old Jewish folks to have a weekly wholesome Shabbat experience.

So far we haven't seen any follow-ups to this film and story in the press, and we don't know if the weekly Wendy's Shabbat gatherings are continuing. But in the interest of alerting Jewish institutions to the need for a more traditional Shabbat experience, we're sharing the full 10 minute video with you.

Shabbat shalom!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THEPLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.