The Shabbat Project, an annual event that seeks to bring together Jews of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, announced Wednesday that the 7th annual international event will be home-based in more than 1,600 cities and 106 countries, as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The "Bring Shabbat Home" event will take place from November 6 to 7, and will offer an array of educational resources in order to enhance the Shabbat experience at home as families and friends are still unable to host large gatherings due to coronavirus restrictions around the world. Included in the materials will be a seven-step guide to observing Shabbat as well as ideas to be shared around the table.
Pre-Shabbat events will also include virtual challah baking sessions, online classes about Shabbat, cooking webcasts, sing-a-thons and virtual synagogue tours. In previous years, the Shabbat Project would host large events.
“We have lived through times of chaos and confusion. But our homes have been havens. And Shabbat can ensure they remain so – places of stability and security, kindness and connection, warmth and love. In a world turned upside down, Shabbat can keep us the right way up,” said Shabbat Project founder and director, South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein.
“Thousands of partners have again stepped forward, eager to bring the Shabbat experience to their communities,” he said. “New, innovative events and initiatives have begun to take shape. New participants are gearing up to experience a full Shabbat for the first time in their lives,” Goldstein added.
Some of the major organizations to take part in the event include Seed UK, which will broadcast a 24-hour challah bake featuring 19 different live events from cities such as Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Sydney, Moscow, Toronto and New York. Likewise, pre-Shabbat events in Arizona will feature Latino pop singer Miriam Sandler. In Israel, events will focus on the recent agreements with the UAE and Bahrain, and will feature the Jewish communities of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait and Oman.
In South Africa, where the Shabbat Project was founded, the head offices of the movement will distribute 7,500 bags filled with Shabbat-themed goodies to the South African Jewish community, while also including the participation of the religious-Zionist Bnei Akiva and largely secular Tzofim youth movements, which will send food parcels and flowers to residents of Karnei Shomron in Israel.