In an act of celebration, hundreds of women from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Turkey, Europe, and the U.S. virtually baked challah together to honor the warming ties between Israel and Arab nations in the Abraham Accords, according to a Jerusalem Post report.
“As we embarked on the flight back to Manama, I thought about how one of the drivers for the Abraham Accords was to create a better future for our children – yours and mine. We are setting an example for them that focuses on building relationships, not walls,” said Houda Nonoo, a Bahraini Jew who was the ambassador to Washington from 2008 to 2013.
The recipe for the challah, a traditional bread baked on the Sabbath, was provided to participants in advance by the Shabbat Project of Ra’anana.
“The whole world is thirsting for Shabbat and for Jewish unity,” said South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, an initiator of the project.
“In this Shabbat project we don’t talk about denominations – we are all Jews. Shabbat belongs to every Jew.”
The women gathered through Zoom to hand-knead the dough under the Hebrew, Arabic, and English slogan “Together.”
One of the event organizers Efrat Raelbrok gave the traditional “Shehecheyanu blessing” before the event began, which was “a dream come true.”
This is the blessing recited when something momentous is done for the first time.
“I pray that all of us now dedicate ourselves to the great work ahead to make the dreams come true for the youth of our region and that’s broader than just the youth in Israel and the Gulf. It includes Palestinian, Libyan, Syrian and Yemeni children,” said Nonoo.
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco are the first Arab countries to agree to normalize ties with Israel under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords.
These four countries, along with Israel, and the U.S. are committed to pursuing “a vision of peace, security, and prosperity in the Middle East and around the world” and “to end radicalization and conflict to provide all children a better future,” according to the Abraham Accords Declaration.
