Fanboys and fangirls streamed into Fantom Comics in Washington on Saturday for Free Comic Book Day, where the Dupont Circle comic shop handed out 2,500 free comics to enthusiasts, but the day before, a different kind of groupie amassed nearby, looking for a more nourishing freebie: hunks of challah. 

The event, held at the Washington-based kosher cake poppery Baked by Yael, was one of many festivities celebrating the third annual National Challah Day, which fell on May 2, kicking off Jewish American Heritage Month. This year, National Challah Day, which was started by Challah Back Girls, a Teaneck, N.J.-based sister-owned business that donates a portion of its proceeds to charity, expanded significantly through a partnership with the Shabbat dinner nonprofit OneTable.

“A day like National Challah Day really helps to highlight and emphasize and celebrate all the things that we want people doing year-round and to do it in a fun and uplifting way,” MJ Kurs-Lasky, senior director of campaigns and growth at OneTable, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “You don’t need me to tell you that we need more good news and more Jewish joy out in the world, and Shabbat and challah are such beautiful and natural opportunities for that.”

National Challah Day isn’t the first partnership between OneTable and Challah Back Girls, a play on the 2004 Gwen Stefani song “Hollaback Girl.” The organizations have held challah workshops, Shabbat dinners and video content together since Challah Back Girls was founded in 2020.

Although the official day fell on Saturday, the celebrations began on April 30 with a Manhattan challah bake-and-sip event featuring mixologist Pam Wiznitzer and a pop-up event at designer Susan Alexandra’s Upper East Side location. The events, held at trendy venues, are exciting ways to connect with OneTable’s already existing audience and to welcome new additions, Kurs-Lasky said.

To mark National Challah Day, OneTable organized over 500 Shabbat dinners in 200 cities with over 4,300 seats. Twenty-one dinners were held by first-time hosts. OneTable partnered with over 50 organizations and local bakeries, with several offering discounts and giveaways to honor the celebration.

“By working and uplifting local bakeries, local businesses and artists, it gives us the opportunity to be a national organization with a local footprint,” Kurs-Lasky said.

Challah Back Girls was founded in 2020, deep in the COVID-19 pandemic by Sara, Marni, Hannah and Eliana Loffman, four sisters from Teaneck. At a time of isolation and despair, “challah became, right off the bat, this symbol of hope and unity,” Sara Loffman, CEO and co-founder of Challah Back Girls, told eJP.

The Loffman sisters distributed challah to healthcare workers who were quarantined from their families and, when civil unrest raged across America after the murder of George Floyd, they sold challah to raise funds for organizations combating racism. During the pandemic, challah was a connector, Loffman said, with grandchildren sending challah to grandparents and vice versa.

In 2024, the sisters established National Challah Day on the National Day Archives alongside such national days as National Jump for Jelly Beans Day, National Bikini Day and National Hug a Kevin Day.

“We had been swimming in dough for many years at that point for Challah Back Girls, but had been making challah our whole lives and connecting to it on an observance and spiritual level,” Loffman said. “We were like, ‘There should be a national holiday.’ It’s a bread the Jewish community appreciates and enjoys, but [others] don’t even realize that they’re having it as French toast at a restaurant or that it’s part of a sandwich. Let’s dive a little deeper and highlight this gorgeous braided bread.”

Setting up the day cost a bit of dough, she noted. “It does cost money, like most fun, awesome things in life.”

National Challah Day falls on May 2 as a way to mark the beginning of Jewish American Heritage Month. The sisters chose the second because they didn’t want it to ever conflict with Passover, which can run as late as May 1. Because this year the celebration fell on Shabbat, it became a weekend endeavor.

“That first bite of challah, for me, says, ‘OK, let’s eat. Let’s start the dinner,” Kurs-Lasky said. He anticipates that attendees at last week’s Shabbat dinners will get a taste of the challah and want more. “We fully expect that the impact of what we generate here will have significant impact for us next week and the week after and the week after.”

Before Challah Back Girls, Loffman was not the baker in the family, but after the family began handing out — and then selling challah — the demand forced her into the kitchen.

Challah “can be a very intimidating recipe and kind of bread,” she said, “but if you really take a step back and just start step by step and enjoy the process, it makes the world of a difference. And then you can do it. If I can do it, trust me, anyone can do it.”

Today, her favorite challah to dig into is her and her sister’s Oreo-infused recipe, which she loves warm. She hopes baker newbies give baking challah a shot. “Everyone should try at least once to make it — and to eat it, of course.”