Shabbat Project Reaches More Than 1 Million In 97 Countries
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — More than one million people in 97 countries around the world participated in the 5th annual Shabbat Project.
Some 1,416 cities around the world, up from 1,152 cities last year, held activities surrounding the 25 hours of Shabbat on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28. Some 586 of the participating cities were located in the United States. Another more than 300 cities and small communities throughout Israel participated in the Shabbat Project. Meanwhile, countries such as Mozambique, Cyprus, Paraguay and Venezuela hosted Shabbat Project events for the first time
“The response from around the world has been overwhelming and heart-warming, and shows the remarkable depth and reach of The Shabbat Project,” said South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, the founder and director of The Shabbat Project, in a statement.
Events included: 1,000 Israelis eating dinner in a shipping hanger in Tel Aviv; a tour group of 30 people from around the world deciding to keep a full Shabbat together in Marrakesh, Morocco; 3,000 at an open-air musical Kabbalat Shabbat overlooking Australia’s Sydney Harbour Bridge; an interfaith unity bake bringing together Muslim and Jewish children at a local preschool in nearby Woolahra, a Sydney suburb; and the lone Jew serving in an army regiment in Abuja, Nigeria who kept Shabbat with the rest of the Jewish world.
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