Where Community Rises: Inside the Calgary JCC’s Challah Tradition

By Jana Zalmanowitz

(AJNews) – The smell of challah on Friday mornings is part of the landscape of the Calgary Paperny Family JCC. If you happen to be there by 9:30 you may get your hands on one of the sought-after loaves. It draws people in, delights the senses and completes Shabbat tables every week. But you may not know the full impact beyond delighting your tastebuds.

I recently spent a morning in Nessie’s Kitchen, aptly named in honour of former Seniors Program Manager, Nessie Hollander, who passed away last year. This is where the baking began.

Nessie started baking challahs over 20 years ago. The evolution of Calgary’s challah icons has been chronicled informally, passed down like a Jewish folktale. Initially assembled as a collection of women from the Bertha Gold residence attached to the JCC, they began to bake challah for fun.

Challah needs would arise. A bar mitzvah here or a shiva there. An occasional wedding. Nessie and her volunteer bakers soon realized there was a demand that they could fulfill, and it evolved into the weekly treat the community knows today.

What started as a fun project became a self-sustaining system that kept seniors programming affordable. Volunteers got together to bake and sell the challah. It brought them joy, and the funds raised went back into supporting programming. Everyone wins.

When Nessie retired, new program manager, Jackie Herman was tasked with overseeing this Friday morning staple. While preparing for my visit, Jackie filled me in on how Nessie’s kitchen is currently run during challah days.

“Katie prepares the dough Thursday evening and puts it in the fridge overnight,” she says, referring to the challah program’s only official employee, Katie Goldig. She has a background as a Jewish professional, but it’s her ten years of experience as a hobby baker that brought Katie into the fold. When I talk to her, Katie insists that aside from implementing a few efficiency measures, she is not the magic behind the challah.

Jackie continues the timeline. “On Friday morning, Shafi takes the dough out before he starts work,” she says referring to one of the JCC’s security team. I checked with him on my way out of the building. This task is not in his job description, but he volunteers because, as he puts it, “I love this community.”

“One of the rabbis comes around 6:30 to light the ovens,” Jackie explains the essential step in ensuring the challahs are prepared with the rabbinic supervision necessary for kashrut.

Then the volunteers come at 7:00. When Nessie ran the program, she would get up at 4:30 in the morning to make the dough. Her army of volunteers would arrive around 5:00 am. As that dedicated crew started to retire and volunteers became scarce, Jackie realized she needed to adjust.

A couple of extra hours of sleep brought in a whole new cohort. Jackie clarifies it’s not just seniors. Challah brings in volunteers of all ages. “Some of them have baked before,” she says, “but others haven’t and the veterans teach them.”

There are perks to volunteering, like first dibs on a freshly baked loaf, but no one has said they’re doing it for the free challah. Some have told Jackie that the process of baking challah for the community is therapeutic and they enjoy working on something tangible. She also suspects many enjoy the connection. “There’s a lot of talking that happens over the braiding table.”

I make arrangements and arrive on a Friday morning in May to talk to some of those who are vital in keeping this program going. I’m there by 7:00 but the group is keen and most were there by 6:30 to secure their space in the kitchen.

There are two groups. One stands around a large island braiding dough. Another group expertly weighs out portions of dough, applies egg washes and toppings while Katie watches the ovens. They introduce themselves as the Challah bubbies. This is because most of them are proud to call themselves grandmothers or even great grandmothers. I think maybe it’s because most emanate grandmotherly warmth.

I want to talk to everyone but there are central figures the group tells me I must speak to. When I ask for last names, they shrug. This is how iconic the challah bakers are. They go by one name. Like Cher or Beyonce.

Anna (Iourovitskaia) steps forward to give me her insight into the program. She’s been in Nessie’s kitchen for six years. Anna moved from Belarus with her family in 1993 when her granddaughter became ill from side effects of the Chernobyl disaster. With her bright red hair and air of competence you can tell Anna feels at home in this kitchen. This is likely due to her 27 years of experience in hospitality at the Banff Springs hotel. She was laid off during the covid pandemic and moved to Calgary. She came to the JCC for the pool and she found challah.

When I ask Anna why she keeps coming back she says, “Why not?! Because the nice people,” and gestures around because the answer is obvious.

I ask her about working with Nessie. She smiles and says, “I love Nessie.” It‘s a simple sentence that implies this may also be why she shows up. Anna feels strongly in carrying on the 20-year legacy started by Nessie.  The others say Anna has been an integral part of continuity in the challah program and that she acts almost like an ambassador, bringing in many new faces to volunteer.

The next central figure in the challah operation is Clara (Gubnistkaia). Anna acts as translator as Clara explains in Russian that she’s been in Nessie’s kitchen for 13 years. She was born in Ukraine and came to Calgary via Israel. She represents the roots of the challah program, of which a large contingent were holocaust survivors.

Clara braids the dough with authority and expertise.  She’s one of the veterans, training many of the new volunteers on how to work with dough. A gesture of how to manipulate the strands. A shake of the head. A repositioning of dough. A smile when you get it right. Why does she do it? She tells us in Russian that she likes making challah and doesn’t want to just stay at home. Again, it’s obvious.

Heather Wax is a social worker who has been coming in before work on Fridays for the last five years. Between sprinkles of poppy seeds, she tells me, “I come for the hugs and the community”.

Sandra Fromme arrived in Calgary this year and within two weeks found herself shaping Hamentaschen in Nessie’s kitchen. “I was looking for a home and a community,” she says, and has been coming ever since.

Other bakers want to mention another of the original challah crew, Frida (Sokolovski). Many would recognize her as a familiar face. For years she baked challahs, sold them and offered a “shabbat shalom” as she helped customers choose the best challah. Frida retired with Nessie, after 20 years of serving the community.

The current baking program makes an unspecified number of challahs every week. They supply the daycare and Shabbat programs in the building with their challahs. The dough is braided into small and large loaves. Buns. Sprinkled with various toppings. Made into large round spirals with raisins for Rosh Hashana, baked beside honey cakes. On Purim, the volunteers make hamantaschen. On Hanukkah, festive cookies.

This program serves many needs in the community. There are those who simply enjoy a good challah for their Shabbat table. Those who have never heard of challah and for whom it provides a friendly introduction to Jewish traditions. There is the profit that goes back into programming. There are the memories of a cherished figure in the Jewish community and her start-up volunteers. There are the current volunteers who come for the company, the connection and purpose.

Anyone who has tasted the challah will tell you it’s magnificent. The stuff of folklore. By afternoon each Friday, the kitchen quiets down and all the bread has been sold, but the smell of fresh challah lingers long after the volunteers leave.

For information on how to volunteer, contact jherman@cjcc.ca

Jana Zalmanowitz is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.