We’re finally here: We have reached the halfway point of the 2023 Summer Challah Recipe Competition at The Jewish Link! What does this mean? Submissions have closed, recipes have been tried and eliminated, and we are coming closer to announcing this year’s winner and recipient of the $100 Cedar Market gift card. In The Jewish Link office, these recipes have succeeded in satisfying both our midweek challah cravings, as well as educating us on the personal connection community members have to this powerful, yet seemingly simple, loaf of bread.

This week, we would like to share a special story that came with one of the recipe submissions. Community member Elana Katz submitted her recipe, which originated with her grandmother. As a staple at their Shabbat table, this challah recipe was later adapted by her mother, who tweaked it just slightly, and then passed it on to Katz. Eventually, what started off as a recipe containing four cups of flour evolved into a five-pound formula that is now eligible for the hafrasha.

As their family continues to grow, the connection to challah has remained consistent and powerful, and is exemplified as they gift each of the family’s daughters/daughters-in-law with a bread machine at their bridal shower. The family’s recipe has also turned communal, with friends and community groups constantly requesting Katz’s homemade challah. And their children “love walking into the house to the smell of fresh challah.”

Katz grew up with homemade challah as a generational trademark. To her, both the act of saying the hafrasha with her daughter, as well as committing her time to the baking each week makes her house feel and smell like a home, especially on Shabbat. Challah is “an important part of what Shabbos is, and reminds people of Shabbos.”

Challah connects people by being a conversation topic, allowing them to exchange recipes and techniques, and can be identified by our community and beyond as an integral part of Jewish life.

We’re not going to share how Katz’s challah fared in our competition or if, in fact, we’ve even tried it yet. You’re just going to have to stay tuned for the final results of The Jewish Link’s 2023 summer challah recipe competition, coming soon.

Hannah Kirsch is The Jewish Link summer intern coordinator and a rising senior at Binghamton University.