2,000 students honor Shabbat tradition Fri.

Jewish Heritage Programs members served up 1,100 pounds of chicken, dished out 475 pounds of kugel and handed out 215 loaves of challah bread on Friday night as part of the organization's biannual effort to reach out to Jewish and non-Jewish students alike.

Called "Shabbat for 2000," this is the 10th such program hosted by the JHP -- and a record-setting one at that.

Up from 1,650 last semester, 2,000 students reportedly participated as part of 75 separate dinners.

"To have 2,000 simultaneous Shabbat dinners was remarkable," said JHP fellow Lindsay Teich, 23. "The students are totally driven."

The program aims to educate and unite the University community.

"One of the great things about Shabbat 2000 is that it is not specifically for Jewish people," said Sheri Halpern, a College junior and JHP Steering Committee leader. "Other people can enjoy free food and learn about Shabbat."

An integral part of the meal was the distribution of informational booklets called How-To-Shabbat. The pamphlets contained information about how to properly hold a Shabbat meal.

JHP Social Committee head and College senior Courtney Jacobs said the main components of the Shabbat tradition are lighting candles and saying prayers over the wine, challah bread and food.

Groups as small as five and as large as 75 signed up, according to organizers.

"There is no advertising; it was all word of mouth," Teich said. Teich is the liaison between students and the organization.

JHP assistant fellow and College junior Abby Zimmerman said that the group held a call-a-thon in which they phoned leaders of campus organizations and friends to spread the idea by word of mouth.

"As easy as you would think it would be to give away free food," it was difficult to get people to commit to holding the dinner, Zimmerman said. "It was really exciting when we got ahold of people who were willing to do it."

Seniors were a large contingent this semester, which Jacobs attributes to the desire to see friends they may not have seen in a while.

"I think, in general, we did a huge outreach to friends of friends," Jacobs said, adding that this semester's success is due to the fact that organizations -- like Onda Latina and others not directly affiliated with the religion -- participated.

According to Teich, Greek houses including Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Tau Epsilon Phi and Delta Delta Delta all hosted dinners, along with many individual students who volunteered to gather their friends for a kosher meal.

Teich estimated that almost 150 freshmen living in the Quadrangle and Hill College House attended Shabbat dinners.

"It was fun," College freshman Ali Sher said. "We did a quick service, [because] not everyone there was Jewish -- so people found out what Shabbat was."

Sher, along with two other University students living in Hill, hosted 50 friends for dinner.

"It was cool to be part of 2,000 people having Shabbat," Sher added.

In Hamilton College House, 40 students gathered to enjoy a similar meal. According to attendee and College sophomore Andrew Mener, the crowd was about 90 percent Jewish.

"The idea is to get as many people as possible to participate in Shabbat," Mener said, "and not to make it an imposing experience."

Dinner sponsors picked up their food at the JHP's offices at 4032 Spruce St. on Friday afternoon.

The chicken was prepared by a hired chef, who Teich reports had been preparing for Friday's feast for a month, while other food was ordered in from New York. Salad and soda -- wine if the party was held off campus -- were also staples of the meal.

"We even supplied everything down to paper goods," Teich said.

JHP, founded on campus in 1993, aims to provide peer-to-peer Jewish identity programs designed to celebrate Jewish heritage.

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