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The Wonders Of Challah

MSU Hillel's "Challah Girls" program offers more than bread.

by Jenny Gross

East Lansing

MSU seniors Jenny Gross of Farmington
Hills and Emily Mitnick of West Bloomfield
with junior Ally Rome of Scotch Plains, N.J.

In the chaos of a typical student's
weekly schedule of classes, home-
work, work, exercise and more, it
is a challenge to find the time for
enjoyable extracurricular activities.
Recently, sophomore Ally Rome
and I decided to embark on a jour-
ney that would enable Jewish stu-
dents at Michigan State University
to escape their daily grind for a
few hours to enjoy the Jewish tra-
dition of baking challah.
We call ourselves "the Challah
Girls" and we are the hostesses
of "Challah for Hillel." At least
once a month, we host and run
the baking program for students to
come to Hillel to meet new people,
exchange friendly conversation,

and get to bake and eat their own challah!
The challah program is a good way to engage students and really enjoy the tradition of bak-
ing bread. This ongoing program is important to me because it is easy and fun and popular with
our students. Baking gives us the opportunity to experience and learn the special routines of
baking and braiding the challah.
I hope that underclassmen also will take an interest in baking challah at Hillel. We hope to
form a branch of Challah for Hunger, an awesome program that raises money and awareness of
world hunger. Money is raised from the baking and selling of challahs and distributed to various
world organizations.

Watch for our e-mails and come join us! @

Top row: Freshmen Rachel Ellentuck and Melissa Schneider, both of
West Bloomfield, Evie Chutz of Bloomfield Hills and Megan Weiner of
West Bloomfield. Bottom row: Freshman Hallie Eisenberg, junior Alicia
Mendelson and sophomore Michelle Balaj, all from Farmington Hills

Jenny Gross of Farmington Hills is a senior at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

U-M Hillel fights for hunger and children one challah at a time.

by Jessica Singer

Ann Arbor

Hundreds of pieces of challah in novel flavors like cinnamon sugar, sun-dried tomato and peanut butter
chocolate chip filled bowls in the auditorium at the University of Michigan Hillel. More than 17 varieties
awaited hungry students, who sampled and cast votes for their favorite flavors.
Live polling was visible on the screen, updated instantly as students voted via text message. This challah
tasting in December was the kickoff event toward starting a chapter of Challah for Hunger on campus.
Challah for Hunger is a group of volunteers that raise money and awareness about hunger through the
production and sale of challah. Leaders from the U-M community involved in the nonprofit partnered with
the locally based organization Will Work for Food, which aims to "volunteer locally to save children glob-
ally." Through this organization, students ask friends and family to sponsor their work efforts with a dona-
tion of $10 per hour. This money goes directly towards buying the Plumpy'nut® bar, which is used to treat
malnutrition in Darfur.
In addition to the money made through sponsors, the funds from selling challot every week before
Shabbat will go to American Jewish World Service as well as Will Work for Food, organizations striving to
eliminate world hunger.
Through U-M Hillel, late last year 25 students attended the General Assembly (GA) hosted by United
Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for North American Jewish federations. Junior Jessica Baer
from Philadelphia wanted to bring back what she learned so she headed the challah initiative.
"I had a vision of baking challah on campus and seeing this idea through until the end," Baer said as she
refilled empty bread bowls.
For the past two weeks, Baer and other students who attended the GA have dedicated their time to bak-
ing.
"I thought it was a great way for Jewish students to get involved locally for a group that supports others
around the world," said sophomore Ben Wolf of Madison, Wisc. More than 100 attended.
With hands covered in challah crumbs, Baer encouraged anyone with an extra 30 minutes to volunteer
during the spring semester.
For more information about chapter meetings and volunteering, visit www.challahforhunger.org or
www.willworkforfood.com . @

U-M senior Tana Schlamowitz of Vero Beach, Fla., and
junior Jessica Baer of Philadelphia at the challah event

4

February 11 • 2010

jewish@edu •

Jessica Singer of West Bloomfield is a freshman at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

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