AMHERST — The community fabric at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was strengthened Wednesday night as students collectively braided dough to make challah, a traditional Jewish bread.
The bread baking was one of the monthly events put on by Helping Hands, a program created in 2011 by Yocheved Adelman, co-director of Chabad House at Amherst, an organization offering Jewish programming to students and community members of all faiths and backgrounds.
“It’s one world that we live in, that we all share together,” she said. “We’re all one family. Yes, we have different faiths, different religions, different colors, and that’s what makes it so beautiful.”
Jonathan Serrano, a UMass senior from West Springfield, said he attended the event because he genuinely wanted to have the experience of making challah.
“I have tons of Jewish friends who rave about it,” he said. “It’s a way I can educate myself on their culture.”
Monica Gabour, a UMass junior from Lexington, attended the event along with Serrano and other students in Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed community service fraternity.
“I want to see life through other people’s eyes,” she said. “I am able to do that if I experience what they experience.”
Gabour later described the bread as “heavenly,” alluding to its soft, light and fluffy texture.
“I’d eat it every day if I could,” she said.
Adelman said challah, a braided loaf, is very basic. Its ingredients are flour, water, yeast, oil, eggs, salt and sugar.
“Watch it grow, braid it and bake it,” she said.
“They say that bread is the staff of life,” Adelman continued. “As a basic staple for so many people in so many countries, it’s a way to show that we’re all together in this world that we live in.”
Adelman will build on that idea of unity by distributing about 200 loaves of the bread to local nursing homes, assisted living centers and rehabilitation facilities. The Helping Hands program was created in memory of Adelman’s mother, who spent many years in a nursing home and would look forward to visits from young people.
“When we see that we share so many more things than we differ in, it makes us realize that we’re all part of one human family,” she said.
Adelman said the event also served as a gathering to unite against incidents of anti-Semitism and other displays of hate on campus.
“So much of the negative activities and feelings and displays on campus really come from a place of not knowing one another,” she said. “When we know one another in a better way we can understand and appreciate our differences, respect those differences and also celebrate those things we agree on.
“Everyone can help others,” she added. “It’s a very basic human achievement that we have here.”
Jeremy Blankfein, a 2015 graduate of UMass who lives in Amherst, came back to campus for the event.
“Some students are out of their comfort zone here, but still come together to help someone out,” he said. “I’m happy to see stuff like this happen.”
About 25 people from Alpha Phi Omega, multicultural Asian sorority Sigma Psi Zeta and other campus members and community residents braided dough around the table late into the evening. They ended the night by listening thoughtfully to Adelman’s retelling of a story from the Talmud, a Jewish text.
“If you want darkness to turn to light,” said Adelman, “you have to do things to generate light. You only need one candle in a big dark room.”
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.