Challah Hu Akbar, indeed

In her ongoing efforts to change the world, Esty Scheiner weekly strides up the steps of New York’s City Hall and walks straight into the mayor’s press office…to deliver him some homemade challah. And at least one more loaf for the press office staff, sometimes with chocolate chips. So reports the NYTimes.

The story goes like this;

Ms. Scheiner, 24, who was reared as Esty Levy in Crown Heights, was set to be married on Sept. 11, 2001. After the terrorist attack that day, she and Dovi, her fiancé, struggled with the wrenching decision of whether to proceed with the wedding. After consulting with a rabbi, they went ahead. “The rabbi said, ‘Look at it as Osama bin Laden did something evil, and you are doing something small but good,’ ” Ms. Scheiner said.

She and Mr. Scheiner set up house in Crown Heights, but never felt at peace. “It struck us that the community downtown was hurt the most,” Ms. Scheiner said. “It was churning inside us that it was providential that we got married on a day of an evil plan. We wanted to spread goodness and do kindness.”

But it doesn’t just end with the challot. They also set up the World Tikkun Center which has classes and events which promise to be “more fun than should be allowed by Jewish law… but it is!” Kabbalah Cafe, Yiddish Yearnings, Satellite Shabbat…in Tribeca, no less, not Crown Heights, you know? And they’re just kids, think about it, when this all started, they were just 21. They just felt like it was important to do what they could from where they could, and they did it in a really beautiful, proactive way.

I mean this is how you ‘bring the light’, by giving; not by wearing red strings and drinking $25 mineral water.

Anyway, If you’re in their neck of the woods, be sure to check it out, or call (866) 4-TIKKUN.

Kol haKavod Esty and Dovi