Salt-N-Pepa Are Pushin’ Challah Real Good — for a Cause

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
If one were to pick a hip-hop star to plug challah baking for a Jewish charity event, an obvious first choice would be Drake — the nice Canadian Jewish boy who went to day school and rapped about his bar mitzvah on “Saturday Night Live.”
But don’t underestimate how many celebrities love the taste of the Jewish bread.
In a short promotional video for the second Kids Mega Challah Bake — which looks to bring over 1,000 Jewish children from kindergarten through eighth grade together on the day of the Super Bowl to bake loaves that go to homeless shelters in New York City — the ’80s group Salt-N-Pepa give the Jewish culinary staple a lot of love.
Not surprisingly, they each have a different take: Salt (Cheryl James) wants to try using it in bread pudding and Pepa (Sandra Denton) likes to use it for French toast.
They aren’t the only celebrities involved in the challah campaign: “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Ian Ziering (who is Jewish) also made a short promotional video and former NFL player Sean James (who is not Jewish) will appear in a how-to-bake-challah video that will play at the event.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
