Breaking Bread: What Do Neil Young and Challah Have In Common?
Anyone that knows me knows I am a huge Neil Young fan. I grew up going to a camp in Northern Michigan every summer from the time I was 6 through high school and there was never a day that somewhere around the camp, whether in a cabin during rest hour, the arts & crafts center during an instructional activity or at a campfire sing along that you didn’t hear one of his songs whether as a solo artist or part of Buffalo Springfield, CSNY or Crazy Horse.
I think CSNY 4-Way Street was the first double album I owned and is still one of my all-time favorites along with After The Gold Rush. So many memories in the unwritten book of my life are attached to those albums and if you ever take a road trip with me, they are part of my mandatory playlist.
So when my son made the decision this past summer to move to Telluride after graduating from Florida State, he called to tell me that the guy he decided he was going to share an apartment with handles a lot of the hospitality and logistics for artists and bands that come to town for festivals, concerts, whatever. But when I heard he had worked with Neil Young and Crazy Horse when they were there last spring to film a documentary as well as record their first studio album in many years, I totally geeked out.
Seriously, I couldn’t contain my excitement especially when I heard that Neil now owns a home in Telluride and I may, in fact, run into him around town. Sadly, I did not in September but I went to my friend Google and searched for the release date of the documentary. And then I crossed my fingers hoping there would be a showing this fall in Boulder where I have been living for the past few years. I mean, come on, Boulder is one of the original hippy dippy communities so how could they not show it here? But nothing came up for about a month so sort of forgot about it until, thanks to Facebook’s algorithm which must know I am a fan of that genre of music and the multitude of things I must follow or like, up popped the one and only showing of Mountaintop in Boulder on November 13th.
I quickly put it in my calendar and was about to buy tickets with a group of friends when one of them reminded me that I had already signed up for another event that evening, the Great Challah Bake at the Boulder JCC which somehow was not on my calendar.
This annual event actually takes place in communities not just in Boulder but around the US and the world as part of The Shabbat Project, a global movement to bring together anyone and everyone and celebrate one Shabbat a year, regardless of race, religion and, yes, politics.
Ok, Neil Young documentary showing one night only vs. a community building event that I have come to look forward to every year since moving to Boulder in 2016???
I was sooooooooooooooooooo torn. I’m not kidding. I mean, I know this should not be anything I should ponder but, trust me, I am someone who thrives on music and the memories it always invokes but I also value my “tribe” and while I am not a very religious person, I do identify culturally as Jewish and take great pride in being engaged in events like this.
I also think, given the rise in anti-semitic attacks, demonstrations and propaganda in the past few years, it is more important than ever for me to not just “talk the talk” but “walk the walk” and find every opportunity I can to use events like The Great Challah Bake as a way to stand up to the haters by “showing up” and never backing down or away from my heritage. As the founder of The Shabbat Project, South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein said, “We cannot be intimidated or paralyzed by the darkness. We mourn and we pray, but we are not defeated or afraid.” (Source)
When the story broke last week about a planned attack on a synagogue by a white supremacist in Pueblo, a town about 2 hours south of Boulder, I literally felt nauseous. Fortunately, the FBI had been monitoring Richard Holzer for a few months and they were able to arrest him before he hurt anyone or did any damage. But then finding out hours later that there had been a group dressed as Hasidic Jews handing out fliers claiming the Holocaust is a lie in downtown Boulder just a few days earlier?
Yeah, sorry, Neil, but my tribe needed me and I needed them.
So as I sit here now writing this blog after spending an incredible evening with almost 400 women mixing, kneading and braiding our challah dough, I know I was in the right place. Besides, I’m sure the documentary will either make its way back to my neck of the woods or will end up on Netflix soon enough.
In the meantime, I put my challah dough in my freezer and will be taking it with me to Telluride when I go to visit my son for Thanksgiving in a few weeks to bake and, no doubt then make, a few rounds of french toast as well as just grabbing a piece here and there to have as a snack.
Or, maybe just maybe, I will run into Neil in Telluride and invite him to break that bread with us.
Now that, in my humble opinion, is the definition of bringing something full circle.
