Who Sets the Shabbat Table?

Who Sets the Table? is a multi-media project looking at who does what to make Jewish holidays happen at home. Over the course of the year we will be running a series of surveys, readers stories and commissioned essays exploring this dynamic. This month we are looking into who does what for the observance of Shabbat and invite all of you to take our survey, share your stories and read the essays on the topic by Ruby Namdar and Judith Shulevitz below. Whether you observe every Shabbat-related commandment or occasionally say a few blessings over a pizza, we want to hear from you. If you consider it Shabbat, we do too.

While taking our survey you might notice a few improvements, inspired by feedback from you. For one, we expanded the scope of the survey to include LGTBQ partnerships and gain some insight into how egalitarian their households are. We also included an “exactly 50/50” answer option, for those of you who have managed to figure out how to divide a task perfectly evenly. (Caveat: please think carefully before choosing this answer. We are all prone to overestimating how much housework we do, particularly men). That said, if you really do strike a perfect balance choose that answer… and then let us know how.)

Read about our Passover survey and see the results here. And stay-tuned for our high holidays and Hanukkah surveys coming later this year.

—Elissa Strauss