Oklahoma City 'Challah Prince' workshop stop imparts both breadmaking artistry and unity
A roomful of people from teens to retirement age, representing varying races, religions and life backgrounds gathered at tables Sunday in a classroom at the Chabad Community Center For Jewish Life and Learning.
The tables, set with balls of dough, dough cutters, aprons and other supplies would provide a hands-on opportunity to learn from Israel's own "Challah Prince," how to form and braid the iconic bread traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays.
"This is the role of the challah, to bring people together," said Idan Chabasov, the 36-year old dancer turned challah baker whose social media and company moniker is the Challah Prince. "Challah is for everybody. Although it is a Jewish bread, for me, challah is for everybody."
Chabasov, who now professionally teaches others how to braid and prepare the bread, does not consider himself an exceptionally religious person, despite being raised in a traditional family, but he does hold great respect for the cultural and religious traditions of his heritage.
"I'm happy to share it, it takes a lot of responsibility of course," Chabasov said. "It's something big and I'm grateful for that every day. There's so many challah bakers and I am the only one who's traveled all over the world and just shared it with everybody."
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The event, a fundraiser in partnership between the Oklahoma Israel Exchange, the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and Hillel at The University of Oklahoma, provided an opportunity for guests to come and watch Chabasov demonstrate multiple intricate braid designs.
"Everything should be a partnership, if we're working together we're doing better work, so we're doing good things," said Edie Roodman, executive director of the Oklahoma Israel Exchange.
Participants in the class were also walked through the process of cutting, forming, rolling out and braiding a five-strand challah design themselves that they could then take home and bake.
Chabasov has only been baking challah since 2017 when he moved from Israel to Berlin. While there, he found himself missing a connection to his culture and began hosting Shabbat dinners. One night he found himself wishing for challah. A trip to a local bakery left him disappointed with the quality available so he decided to try to learn how to make it himself.
From there, a calling began to grow and in 2019, he created an Instagram account with plans to use his creative background and video production experience to make the most of his new passion. He now boasts more than 165,000 followers, and Oklahoma City marked his ninth stop on a 10-city U.S. tour giving challah workshops.
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"I feel like finally I found something that this is my real mission and my real goal, to spread the love and spread this creativity," Chabasov said. "I always said that as an artist that creativity — this is the most valuable thing in the world — people can take with them every day."
Chabasov said he is happy to be the one to get to bring challah to others and with plans to continue booking workshops in the U.S. and Europe through 2024, there's no sign of slowing him down.
"Challah really represents how food brings people together. We take the strands divide them and then you bring all the strands together and connect them with each other," Chabasov said. "When I see people leave my workshops, home, holding the challah and have a big smile on their face, that's amazing."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Challah Prince' Idan Chabasov comes to OKC for braiding workshop
