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!

(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.)  

Israel's Livnot U'Lehibanot Joins The Shabbos Project With a Welcoming Song

With the worldwide Shabbos Project taking place tomorrow night and Saturday, we found groups all over the world busily inviting largely unafilliated Jews to spend 25 hours immersed in the warm, relaxed atmosphere that prevails on Shabbat, week after week, year after year. 

One of these groups is Livnot U'Lehibanot, an unaffiliated, non-profit organization that has been running co-ed Israel experience programs since 1980 in the city of Tzfat.  The programs facilitate an exploration of Israel and Jewish heritage through hiking, community service, seminars, and meaningful interactions with native and immigrant Israelis.  Livnot programming is geared for Jewish adults with little Jewish background.

Three Livnot members have created a buzz on the Internet with a song to welcome the Shabbat. While it has attracted thousands of views on Facebook, it didn't quite achieve the 360 million views that the song it's based on got on YouTube. That's almost the same as the combined population of the USA and UK, a number that we find difficult to fathom. So what's the song that it parodies? Royals, by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde.

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.)

South Africa's "Shabbos Project" Goes Global This Shabbat, Oct. 24-25

In 2013, 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?

The idea took root and last October the majority of South Africa's 75,000 Jews, most of whom had never observed a single Shabbat, adopted the slogan "Keeping it Together" and turned the major cities into examples of Shabbat observance. Dinners indoors and outdoors, synagogue attendance, quiet time with the family, and a well-attended Havdalah concert were enjoyed by the participants.

So what are they doing for an encore? They're going global. Already some 170 cities in 30 countries are geared up for the 2014 Shabbos Project this Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, Shabbat Parshat Noach. Challah baking has started, invitations are going out, and Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox communities will be participating in local events and observances.

The two videos below tell the whole story. The first tells about the concept and implementation in South Africa last year, and the second is an invitation by former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman to Jews worldwide to participate this week.

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.) 

 

(A tip of the kippah to Jack Kustanowitz for bringing The Shabbos Project to our attention.)