Right here’s me not feeling even remotely bitter that the Guinness World Report for the most important Shabbat dinner — the one my buddies and I set in Tel Aviv in 2014 — has simply been damaged once more.
Completely not bitter.
Completely nice over right here.
No, really, I’m by no means dwelling on the truth that this new record-setter organized by Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Middle and held within the New York Metropolis’s conference middle got here with a half-million-dollar test courtesy of the UJA-Federation of New York and a $54 ticket worth besides. In the meantime, ours — run by a handful of exhausted volunteers at White Metropolis Shabbat — was free for anybody who tossed even a single greenback into our crowdfunding marketing campaign. (Facet observe: Operating that marketing campaign stays one of many hardest issues I’ve achieved — begging family and friends for cash was completely out of my wheelhouse. Mad props to precise fundraisers in every single place.)
The tables set for a Guinness World Report-breaking Shabbat dinner, hosted by White Metropolis Shabbat in Tel Aviv, June 13, 2014. (Gideon Markowicz/Flash 90)
We bootstrapped all the pieces. Zeev Isaac, proprietor of Hangar 11, Israel’s largest venue, gave us his area at value. I personally folded napkins for what felt like 30 years. Golan Wineries, with whom we had a long-standing relationship from internet hosting our month-to-month 200-person Shabbat meals, catering principally to Anglo immigrants to Israel, sponsored the wine. And even then we nonetheless couldn’t make the price range work, so Chabad swooped in on the eleventh hour to plug the opening.
Aside from a pre-Shabbat musical Kabbalat Shabbat live performance, we didn’t have a price range for leisure throughout the meal. Not like with Temple Emanu-El, there was no spare money for trapeze-artist-cum-violinists taking part in “Fiddler On The Roof” hit “Custom” whereas dangling from the rafters. Our whole occasion, however, stayed firmly gravity-compliant. We figured nobody would discover so long as any extra funds went towards copious portions of arduous alcohol. I used to be newly pregnant, so I spent a lot of the evening pretending to take pictures by stealthily launching them over my shoulder, whereas everybody else bought progressively louder singing Shabbat songs. One very drunk husband — tasked with distributing mentioned pictures — stumbled your entire hour-long stroll again to Jaffa.
However the actual distinction wasn’t the funds, a minimum of from what I can see from afar. It was within the overarching vibe.
For one, our dinner absolutely adhered to Orthodox customs. The meal we served was a standard Shabbat unfold — together with meat — whereas Temple Emanu-El dared to go pescatarian, a dramatic departure from the de rigueur Shabbat desk. Had my Moroccan grandmother been there (and alive), she’d have lobbed certainly one of her well-known spiced meat boulettes at one of many 68 cooks catering the occasion.
Look, the New York menu spotlighted Adeena Sussman — the undisputed Shabbat queen of delicacies — in addition to three different thrilling Jewish cooks, so who am I to grumble?
However in crafting our menu, we have been adhering to Guinness’ guidelines. Guinness advised us explicitly that we would have liked desk captains to implement conventional Shabbat practices: Kiddush, the blessing over the wine; Hamotzi, the blessing over bread; correct prayers and nothing that will violate spiritual legislation.
The second The Massive Shabbat broke the file for world’s largest Shabbat dinner, held on the Javits Middle on Nov. 21, 2025. (Rob Buchwald)
The menu needed to be faxed upfront (2014, but by some means nonetheless the halcyon fax period) to an overseer who then determined whether or not it certified as “conventional Shabbat fare.” We have been explicitly advised, for instance, that lasagna — served in New York — was out.
And the fish rule. Oh, the fish rule. Guinness insisted that each single individual needed to obtain a bit of fish inside the first 5 minutes of the meal — even when they hated fish, have been allergic to fish, or deliberate to deal with it as an artwork set up. Fish was the required first course, and thus fish should seem on greater than 3,000 plates in 5 minutes. A whole bunch of waiters stood in place with steaming salmon. The Hamotzi blessing was made and so they sprinted. It was absurd and superb. The room erupted into cheers as waiters tore across the venue, flinging fish trays with army precision.
New York’s celebrants confronted their very own salmon. However that they had different benefits as they set their file.
In Tel Aviv, Shabbat means no public transport, so most of our visitors needed to be inside strolling distance, or for non-observant attendees, drive or catch taxis. (The Berlin Shabbat dinner that broke our file a yr later was a breeze in that respect — everybody was already on the venue for the Maccabi video games.) Temple Emanu-El’s crowd, in distinction, was filmed at subway stations arriving on the occasion on the Javits Middle.
Temple Emanu-El additionally had Andrew Glass, a Jew from Brooklyn, available as their Guinness adjudicator (or, in his phrases, “aJewdicator”). We, however, needed to fly in Pravin Patel from London. Good man, however distinctly not Jewish, so he may write down attendance. Sadly, that meant counting on his rudimentary counting technique, which I nonetheless blame for our official tally of two,226 — although we handed out upwards of three,000 bracelets.
Talking of bracelets: Guinness required every attendee to put on a singular numbered band so that they might be counted. Easy on a weekday. On Shabbat? I spent months looking for budget-friendly pre-numbered bracelets that couldn’t be torn off after the occasion. I finally discovered a provider in China. I distinctly bear in mind the hormonal meltdown — I used to be pregnant in any case — when it regarded like they wouldn’t arrive in time. They did — simply. No wristbands plagued the New York occasion.
We additionally confronted a problem when it got here to the essential Guinness requirement of holding folks of their seats for the required hour-long period. Adhering to Orthodox interpretations of Jewish legislation meant no dwell music as soon as it was sunset. We needed to depend on the spirit of the Shabbat, not Broadway stars, to captivate attendees. And after it was over, we had little in the way in which of documentary proof — we stopped videotaping when Shabbat started. There’s no tape of the second we have been declared the winner.
However the factor about an occasion complying with Orthodox practices is that it naturally opens the door to everybody. Our visitor checklist ran from former chief rabbi Yisrael Lau to haredi TV presenter Sivan Rahav-Meir and her household, to extra conventional varieties, like American-Israeli basketball participant Tal Brody, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former officers Michael Oren and Irwin Cotler, to the proudly secular Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai. And, because the date we selected fortunately coincided with Delight, a complete extra cohort in glitter joined us contemporary off the parade.
At a time when divides between spiritual and secular Jews are as soon as once more threatening to tear Israeli society aside, trying again on the 2014 record-breaking Shabbat dinner, with its mingling of black hat-wearing haredi Jews and secular Tel Avivians in strappy attire, is one thing of a balm.
So, no, I’m actually not bitter about being usurped.
On a severe observe, the beneficiant nook of my soul actually is glad final week’s dinner occurred. We at all times mentioned we set the file simply so others may break it. Temple Emanu-El did that with aptitude, from the snappy slogan (“Breaking bread. Breaking the world file”), to the high-caliber lineup, to creating an environment that, by all accounts I’ve seen on-line, was genuinely magical (even amongst those that discovered the aerial act … puzzling). The organizers additionally deserve credit score for the top-notch safety, one thing that may’t be taken calmly on this local weather. And there was launched hostage Omri Miran main the Shabbat candle-lighting together with his spouse Lishay — a small act that appeared seismic. Communal moments carry a brand new form of weight now, and it appears everybody in that room felt that.
So sure, I’m genuinely pleased they broke the file.
And no, I’m not bitter.
Effectively. Perhaps only a smidgen.
Principally as a result of nobody thought to ask me.
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