Baking challah has never been this much fun! Hundreds of ORT students from Argentina to India came together via videoconferencing for a challah agula workshop – making the round loaves traditionally eaten at Rosh Hashana.

It was a marvellous way for everyone to connect in the run-up to the Jewish New Year, World ORT Chief Operating Officer Dan Green told the participants from the organisation’s London office as 100 visiting ORT Argentina students cheered.

“We want to congratulate everyone but especially ORT Argentina for putting together this wonderful, wonderful initiative. This has been an amazing example of how great and how far and wide our ORT network is.

Dan Green

More than 700 primary and secondary students, parents and grandparents took part in the event in Buenos Aires alone with others taking part in Mumbai, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Rome, Chernovitz, Prague, and Kazan.

The Principal of CIM-ORT in Mexico City, Adela Faena Hop, expressed the gratitude of her school community for the opportunity to take part in the celebration of Jewish tradition.

She added: “Our families were amazed about the interaction we had via Webex. We were able to communicate simultaneously with different countries making real one of the main purposes of our organization, which is to have an intercultural relationship among the schools of ORT.”

Technical difficulties meant that the ORT schools in Dnepropetrovsk and Nahariya were not able to complete their presentations but it was still a tremendous achievement.

“It was the first time in ORT’s history that so many places have been connected to engage in an activity together,” said World ORT Assistant Programme Coordinator Shoshana Kandel. “It was an ambitious exercise and one through which we experienced global unity.”

Each country shared their Rosh Hashana customs while ORT Argentina guided everyone through the recipe and introduced Rabbi Yonatan Sirota who explained the meaning of the holiday and blew the shofar.