This one really got a rise out of people.
Dozens of bakers got their hands dirty cracking eggs and kneading dough to make fresh bread during a Challah Palooza event at the Shorefront Y in Brighton Beach on Nov. 6.
Making the Jewish staple was a first for one Manhattan Beach resident who attended with his grand children and said the warm, freshly baked treat was so good that his adult daughter ate too much and got a stomach ache.
“We gave it to my daughter, she took it to her house and she got sick eating eat it because she ate the whole thing up at once. But it was good, it was very good,” said Jerry Fox, who made the dough at the Shorefront Y and brought it home to cook. “My wife baked it in our house, and the house smelled great.”
Another first-timer thought all the mixing and kneading would be tough, but it was a cakewalk, she said.
“Actually I thought it would be much harder to make challah than it was,” , said Inna Shmidova, who brought her 5-year-old daughter Rashella and 8-year-old son Asher.
And the event wasn’t just enjoyable because of the food, Fox appreciated learning more about the significance of making challah. Organizers passed around a handout with cooking instructions on it as well as the meaning behind the braids baked into the bread — which often signify love — and the prayers said before the challah is cut and eaten, said Fox.
“It wasn’t good, it was great,” he said. “I thought it was so creative — with the infusion of what the prayers mean.”
The event — organized by the United Jewish Appeal Federation — was the first of its kind for the Shorefront Y, but organizers hope to cook up another one soon, said director Anna Bronfman.
