What started as a small challah bake between a group of friends has spread like wildfire, exploding within days into a worldwide event, coordinators tell TLS, with women in communities across the globe joining together Wednesday night for a challah bake and evening of chizuk.

The events are being held לזכות רפואה שלמה:
נחמה ברכה בת חיה לאה
מלכה בת יוטא ציפרא

The Lakewood event will take place at 8:30 PM this evening at the Chai Lifeline Center, 90 North County Line Road in Jackson, led by Shaindy Plotzker. Attendees are asked to bring their own dough.

The idea began when Chai Lifeline and Camp Simcha people decided to put together a challah bake for their two friends, planning events in four locations: Brooklyn, the Five Towns, Lakewood and Monsey, a coordinator of the event told TLS.

“And then somebody from Eretz Yisrael reached out to me and said, ‘Wait, I want to host one, I live in Yerushalayim,'” the coordinator told TLS. “I said, sure, the more the merrier. So I posted it on a Tehillim chat, and my phone blew up. This one’s calling me from Australia, that one’s calling me from Brazil. People are reaching out from Mexico, all over the United States, England, Eretz Yisrael, all over. It’s beyond.”

What was meant to be a four-location event has since ballooned into a grassroots phenomenon: challah bakes and evenings of chizuk are being held Wednesday night in Brooklyn, the Five Towns, Monsey, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Passaic, Baltimore, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Montreal and Yerushalayim, with an event in London in the works — following an event already held Tuesday night in Toronto.

The mitzvah of challah is one of the special mitzvos given to women, and communal challah bakes have long been held as a zechus for yeshuos. The extraordinary response, organizers say, should serve as a tremendous zechus for the girls and for all of Klal Yisrael.

“Everyone loves Malka,” the coordinator added. “Anyone who meets her the first time, you just fall in love with her.”

The Toronto event already took place Tuesday night — its flyer: