AMBERLEY VILLAGE, Ohio — "It’s an evening of hope."
More than 500 women came to the seventh annual Mega Challah Bake at Adath Israel Congregation.
“Challah baking itself is actually a traditional mitzvah, a precept from the Bible that we’ve been doing for thousands of years from the earliest matriarchs,” said Mega Challah Bake Director Chana Mangel.
Challah is made before Shabbat, a Jewish holiday. It’s a day of rest and weekly observance. It happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday to honor the day God rested after creating the world.
Each woman made two challahs, one to keep and a second to giveaway.
But this challah bake held more significance than previous ones.
"Last year, we were not at war. The year before, we were not at war. So this one is so much more important because we have the names of the hostages," Sandy Hatfield said. "We are here more in solidarity than ever before to show that we are a group of women who have this common bond and it’s all in our hearts."
This year’s challah bake was a moment for the women in the Jewish community to unite as one.
"We’re coming together to do something that is traditional. Jewish pride is shining here and even more than that we’re unifying to pray, to sing, to bring hope and to bring light," Mangel said. "Where there’s darkness, we need to fight the darkness with light."
Mangel said they made sure to include the hostages.
"On every single women’s placemat there is a name of a hostage that is being held one of the 240 hostages that are being held in Gaza and every single woman will have a name in front of her, so that when we separate the dough and the gates of heaven are open to us for prayer we’re each going to adopt a hostage to pray for their release," she said.
They held a moment of silence for every woman in the room to pray for the name on their placemat. Even the youngest girls in the room said they felt the weight of this moment.
"You just have them in mind and just think and when you’re like praying like please God help this soldier survive," said 10-year-old Ricki Klinkowitz.
It was a special moment Klinkowitz shared with her older sister, Leeba.
"It’s really important because even like younger people, we can still do something," Leeba said.
“We need to show the world that the Jewish people are strong and we’re coming together to, like, pray for the soldiers," Ahuva Lenefsky said.
For them, it was a moment that was bigger than just making challah.
"And it’s not just making challah, it’s not just talking with people you haven’t seen in forever, it’s coming together in solidarity," Hatfield said. "We’re going to be praying for the Israeli soldiers, families and those we’ve lost over there."
Hatfield said she hopes every woman continues to pray for the name on their placemat and hopes all of their prayers are felt in Israel.
