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Israel-Gaza War, Israeli Society

Meet the Woman Baking Hundreds of Challahs a Week for IDF Soldiers

Rachel Dabah, an employee of the Herzog Medical Center, heads a volunteer headquarters for baking hundreds of tasty challahs for soldiers.

Hospital chef by pay, challah baker by volunteer day. Rachel Dabah.

58 year old Rachel Dabah, the food director at the Herzog Medical Center in Jerusalem, has launched a particularly exciting project – baking challahs every week for IDF soldiers. Rachel lives in Jerusalem and is the mother of four children, one of whom is a son serving as a reserve officer in the south.

In her day job, Rachel is charged with cooking meals for the hundreds of patients at the Herzog Medical Center and its medical staff. Since the beginning of the war, Rachel has been overseeing a headquarters full of volunteers at Herzog Medical Center where they bake hundreds of tasty and fresh challahs for the IDF every week.

Rachel and her voluntary army of challah bakers.
Rachel and her voluntary army of challah bakers. (Photo: Andrew Siton)

Rachel tells of how the project got off the ground: “When the war broke out, I wanted to do something and contribute. I turned to the Medical Center management with a request to use the new and spacious kitchen, which was recently built, to bake challahs for the soldiers. To my joy, I immediately received a positive answer.”

“I established a WhatsApp group and dozens of volunteers joined, some of whom are Herzog employees. Every Thursday from afternoon till evening, we bake hundreds of tasty challahs in the kitchen.”

Men and women on the challah line.
Men and women on the challah line. (Photo: Andrew Siton)

“We send the challahs to the various units – this time armored or artillery, that time Givati or Golani, another time the Navy and others. This is our small and symbolic thanks at the Herzog Medical Center to the soldiers of the IDF, who are fighting for us.”
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