A Thanksgiving Journey: In Search of the Wild Challurkey

The staff at Mayim Bialk's website, Grok Nation, has been busy this week getting ready for Thanksgiving. 

FIlled with the holiday spirit, and probably somewhat nostalgic for the rare confluence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah a couple of years ago, Grok Nation's Editorial Director Esther Kustanowitz ventured forth to find a way for like-minded Jews to perpetuate the traditions of both holidays.

She didn't have to travel far from her home base in Los Angeles. At Bibi’s Bakery & Cafe in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, bakers have been hard at work in advance of Thanksgiving, producing Challurkeys around the clock. Esther's interview of owner and baker Dan Messinger about the peculiarities and importance of this festive Thanksgiving bread reveals everything you wanted to know about the Challurkey.

GrokNation is an online community for people of all ages and backgrounds to dive deep into conversations on contemporary issues. Actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory, Blossom) founded the site two years ago. Grok is one of those words that people who are fans of classic sci-fi probably know. Originally, it’s from a 1960s sci-fi novel called Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and refers to one character’s attempt to learn about the world around him by “grokking,” drinking in an idea until it becomes part of him from the inside out.

Enjoy, and have a happy Thanksgiving.

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Brooklyn Women Bake World's Longest Challah Certified By Guinness World Records

Two years ago, South Africa's Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein had an idea. Wouldn't it be wonderful if most South African Jews kept one Shabbat together, publicly? We posted the story last year, when the idea expanded into a worldwide Shabbat observance, The Shabbos Project.

Last week, the event was repeated in Cape Town, with 1,700 women baking challah. They were joined by women at similar events in 560 cities around the world, including Brooklyn, where women in the Park Slope neighborhood set an official Guinness world record for the world's longest braided bread measuring 20 feet long.

As Brian Pellot wrote for Religion News Service,

Goldstein attributes the movement’s enormous growth — from 1,800 partner groups around the world in 2014 to 5,000 this year — to its grass-roots nature and social media appeal.

“What’s given the project real space to move at such a rapid rate is that it belongs to the people. It’s not a hierarchical organization,” he said on the phone from Israel, where he helped lay the groundwork for community events before returning to Johannesburg on Wednesday.

This week’s global Shabbos Project features yoga events and picnics in San Diego, a 3,000-person street dinner in downtown Los Angeles and major events in 560 cities around the world. In Johannesburg, 5,000 women registered for a challah bake Thursday featuring a live video link with thousands of women in Tel Aviv.

Here's a video of the Guinness official measuring the challah and certifying its length, followed by a video of the mega challah bake in Boca Raton, Florida last week.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Making Challah in the Moroccan Mellah

In Morocco, the old Jewish Quarter is called the Mellah (Yes, the name derives from the Hebrew word for salt. How it got the name is very interesting and you'll have to read about it here.) The art of braiding and baking challah is still very much alive there. 

This short video shows the rolling, braiding and shaping of traditional Jewish Challah bread to the accompaniment of some lively Moroccan music. Its preparation is one of the classes offered in the Moroccan hotels that are part of the Sans Souci Collection. Now, if only they included the recipe for the dough which seems unusually pliable and easy to work with.

This was filmed in the old Jewish neighbourhood of Marrakech, where today there are only a few families that still live and preserve these traditions. Enjoy!

(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 THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)