Challah for Our Soldiers

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Organizers of a challah-baking fundraiser were so successful in the Five Towns that they shut down their local ovens, even as the campaign spread throughout North America and Israel.

The local bakers started with 67 challot, making 90 the following week, and 350 in their final week.

ChallahForOurSoldiers.org bakers work together in their homes, donate the ingredients, labor and time, then “sell” the challot for donations that are then forwarded to one of several charities to aid IDF soldiers.

“I have cousins in the (Israeli) army,” said Elianna Kaufman of Woodsburgh, one of the organizers. “I wanted to do something here to show our support. [With] challah, it’s not just the donation but tefillot — we connected with the Shmira project (matching soldiers with Jews who pray for them); we take names of soldiers and make the bracha (blessing) on the challah (preparation) with them in mind.” She joined with a fellow HAFTR graduate from Atlantic Beach to implement the project.

A third friend, Daniel Riedler, a Ramaz graduate who made aliyah to Jerusalem, matched their effort in Israel, and made 80 challot the first week with assistance from Core 18, a multi denominational Jewish leadership program.

Riedler set up a webpage and the project took off, with groups now baking on the Upper East and West sides of Manhattan, Deal, Teaneck, East Orange, Forest Hills, Long Beach, Great Neck, Chicago, Monsey, Los Angeles, Toronto, Givat Shmuel and Raanana.

“Challah and Shabbat are connected with time to be home with family and as Am Yisrael, we want to show we’re family and Israel is home,” explained Kaufman. They initially thought to do it one week only but “we saw the war continued. People from other communities heard about it and it spread from the website.”

Since the start of the campaign, they have raised enough money to supply bulletproof vests for an IDF pluga (company), she said. They have received requests from other plugot for similar supplies and have raised more than $25,000 over the course of the project and “have been allocating those funds accordingly,” she said.

The Five Towns bakers — ten young women, graduates of TAG and HAFTR who currently attend NYU, Queens, Baruch, Columbia, Stern or Barnard — gathered in one of the volunteer’s kitchens,

“It’s fun,” said Kaufman.

When The Jewish Star noted that the challah was exceptionally fluffy and tasty, Kaufman laughed and said baking with so many different bakers and recipes and techniques was interesting.

Bakers work all day Thursday and are usually done by 1 am Friday although, she said, one of her Manhattan friends “did an all nighter.”

“It’s exciting to see how many want to do good and use their talents to help Am Yisrael, instead of just reading Facebook news. Am Echad B’lev Echad (one nation one heart). It ties together tefillot and donations. Making challah is raising the everyday to sanctity. It’s an amazing idea, we want to make it global.”

Funds from the challah sales go to charities that include Yad Ezra, One Family Together, Standing Together, A Package from Home, and Lone Soldier Center.

For more information go to challahforoursoldiers.org.