Idan Chabasov  will share artistry at challah bake for multi-generations

By Deb Silverthorn

As the ingredients of challah come together to create magic, so will participants of The Intown Chabad’s Multi-Generational Challah Bake at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Scout at The Statler.

Idan Chabasov, the Challah Prince, will share his inspiration and artistry and Yehudis Wolvovsky of the Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury, Connecticut, will discuss profound insights and feminine wisdom. Attendees will enjoy light refreshments and prepare one round challah, with a bevy of toppings, to be baked at home.

Wolvovsky is the mother of Mushka Plotkin, who with her husband Rabbi Mendy Plotkin leads Intown Chabad’s young adult community.

“We hope to see young ladies, their mothers and grandmothers, their sisters and friends, said Plotkin. “My mother and the Challah Prince together are such a special treat. She has so much insight to share and there’s no one craftier at the twists and tastes of challah.”

The Challah Prince, a sabra, comes to Dallas from his home in northern Israel. During a seven-year stint living in Berlin, Germany, he missed the flavor of the Shabbat treat he’d enjoyed all his life. Searching with no success for a delicious challah, he decided to bake his own.

“I’m here to elevate love, life and safety and to do that with the tastiest thing in the world — challah,” Chabasov said. A former communication, film and dance student, he performed for years as a ballet dancer before turning to art and animation.

In January 2020, Chabasov took his recipes on the road and onto social media. Just months later the pandemic began and his passion for challah was accompanied by an overwhelming desire to bring joy and exhilaration to whomever he could reach.

“With COVID-19, I realized I had a purpose to encourage people and a mission to help people make the hard times less stressful and more fun,” he said.

What started as an Instagram experiment has blossomed into an ever-growing community of more than 490,000 followers of @ChallahPrince.

In the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, that mission to bring light, to find joy and hope is even greater. He has traveled around the world; in February and March of this year alone he did 25 programs in the U.S. designing dough and doing good.

“I was at a party similar to that of the Nova music festival. Before 7 a.m. the music stopped and the DJs told us to pack up and go home as quickly as possible,” said Chabasov. “We had no idea what was going on but shortly after, the police told us we couldn’t go anywhere. It was almost seven hours before we returned home.

“It was much later that news was coming in of the tragedies. I can’t even explain what it was like,” he said. “We were frozen, for days, unable to do anything. Once I could regroup, I got together with a group of baker friends and for more than a month we would gather each Friday and bake more than 300 challot for (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers. It was light. It was what we could do.”

Since Oct. 7, Chabasov has created 11 different Jewish star challah designs, including a “shlissel challah.” This is baked in the shape of a key and believed by some to be a sign of blessing and good fortune.

“My purpose since Oct. 7 is even deeper and my mission is stronger,” said Chabasov. “Light is brighter than darkness and love is stronger than hate.”

Shining that light — reaching out and bringing community together — is what The Intown Chabad hopes to accomplish.

“I grew up baking with my mom and my grandmother Barbara Steinberg, of blessed memory, and I think it’s so important to carry on our traditions,” said Carly Weisberg. She, along with Plotkin and Aidy Drizin, co-chairs the Sept. 10 event with her mother Sheryl Weisberg, Carly Bierman, Ilene Bierman, Lauren Broidy, Rachel Chanon, Torri Hayden, Danna Morguloff-Hayden, Raquel Henkin and Tess Novek.

“The Intown Chabad fosters programming that is full of heart and spirit,” she added. “The people, the events — all of it is wonderful.”

Weisberg’s mother Sheryl said, “I’ve participated in a number of challah bakes, but I love the idea of this being multigenerational. I love the engagement and community that The Intown Chabad is providing for my daughter and other young people, and I’m so happy to support it. It’s so important to pass on our traditions. This evening is a perfect opportunity for that.”

Scout at The Statler, a sponsor of the event, provides its space courtesy of Co-chair Novek, a New Jersey native who moved to Dallas in 2020. She has found friends who’ve become family and a sense of connection, including Plotkin and others she’s met through The Intown Chabad.

“High Holiday services and the Ladies’ Nights have both been meaningful and helped me build community here. It’s like being home. It’s so comfortable,” said Novek, area director of marketing for Aimbridge Hospitality, whose properties include HALL Arts Hotel and The Statler. “Mushka is on-trend, always fired up and a driving force. Any event at The Intown Chabad gives me a full heart.

“The Statler is proud to sponsor this event and I can’t wait to meet Idan,” she said. “I follow him, and his posts are just mesmerizing.”

Plotkin, who remembers as a young child standing on a stool to help her mother and grandmother make challah, now bakes with her 2-year-old daughter Raizel and looks forward to her 11-month-old Pesya joining them.

“Women hold the mitzvot of challah, of candlelighting and of family purity and each of those is an honor to treasure,” she said. “I imagine the room at The Statler filled with meaning. I’m so proud and excited.”

Tickets are $54/person with table and additional sponsorships also available. For more information and to register, visit theintownchabad.com/challahbake.