A community campaign hosted by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles

Building a Jewish interfaith cooking class

Building a Jewish interfaith cooking class focused on holiday dishes can create a welcoming place where people meet through familiar kitchen work and respectful conversation. Jewish recipes can sit alongside dishes associated with Christian, Muslim, Hindu and secular celebrations without asking anyone to treat those traditions as interchangeable. The emphasis is on learning how a holiday meal is prepared, why its ingredients matter, and how it is shared. For newcomers, this can be a gentle place to encounter Jewish food; for experienced cooks, it offers a chance to explain customs, correct assumptions and improve their own methods.

The format reflects the participatory spirit of The Next Big Jewish Idea, a nonprofit campaign hosted by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. It invited Jewish community members to submit, share and vote on ideas for stronger communal life, support for people in need and a secure future. Its categories, finalist rankings, judge profiles, rules and contact resources demonstrate how a proposal can become a public community project. An Australian pilot could adapt that process by gathering recipes, volunteer teachers and participant votes before each session, then confirming the menu, accessibility plan and budget.

Jewish dietary laws need to be treated as core teaching points rather than a footnote. Meat and dairy require separation, pork and shellfish are excluded, and kosher practice also depends on equipment, storage and cleaning. Interfaith participation expands the conversation without weakening those standards. Menus can accommodate halal, vegetarian and gluten-free requirements, as well as common food allergies, through carefully planned substitutions. A partner host can also explain the food customs attached to Ramadan, Eid, Diwali, Easter, Christmas or another observance.

For an Australian pilot, Melbourne and Sydney offer large migrant communities, established Jewish institutions and well-used public kitchens. Queen Victoria Market, Adelaide Central Market and local produce markets can supply seasonal ingredients, while supermarkets such as Woolworths and Coles make pantry staples accessible across the country. The Australian seasonal calendar also shapes the programme: Hanukkah may fall in spring or summer, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur usually arrive around September or October, and Easter, Christmas and school holidays affect attendance. These practical details belong in the plan from the beginning.

A shared kitchen with a clear purpose

Begin with a purpose that is culinary, social and educational. A useful promise is that every participant will leave with a cooked dish, a tested recipe, a short account of the holiday behind it and at least one new connection. Interfaith here means listening across difference and planning access deliberately. It does not mean stripping religious observances of meaning or presenting all holidays as interchangeable. A trained Jewish facilitator and a host from another faith can model that distinction, helping the group move from curiosity towards genuine hospitality.

Choose a group of twelve to sixteen people for the pilot. Four sessions of two and a half hours create enough time for conversation and cooking without turning the event into a lecture series. An information display can show the schedule, dietary protocol, photographs of finished dishes and the source of each recipe. Invite participants to say what they would like to learn and to name dishes they associate with celebration. Those contributions guide the menu while giving guests a voice from the first meeting.

The venue should be accessible by public transport, step-free where possible, and equipped with reliable ovens, induction or gas burners, refrigeration and handwashing facilities. A council community centre may serve more people than a synagogue kitchen, provided the host can meet food safety and insurance requirements. If a certified kosher kitchen is unavailable, make the first menu plant-based or fish-based, use verified ingredients and avoid claiming that mixed equipment is kosher. Clear labelling matters for religious observance and for the health of every guest.

Designing the menu and learning journey

Build the curriculum around Jewish holiday knowledge and practical technique. A four-session sequence might cover Hanukkah latkes and a partner’s festive bread, a Shabbat cholent, Passover charoset and matzah, and Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot dishes with a guest recipe from another faith. Each session should identify which parts of the meal can be prepared in advance, where a dish belongs in a ceremony and how it is served. This keeps the focus on holiday meaning rather than presenting a collection of novelty recipes.

Teach in cycles: read the story behind the dish, demonstrate one technique, let pairs cook, then eat together and discuss adjustments. Familiar methods include frying, slow cooking, baking, fermenting and making filled pastries. Participants also learn to scale quantities, use Australian metric measurements and write a recipe another cook can follow. For courses that use zodiac symbolism as a creative theme, hosts can consult the Basa Astrology guide for prompts about signs and cycles, while keeping Jewish dates, Hebrew literacy and food knowledge grounded in community educators.

Source ingredients close to each class and let the menu change with the market. A dry-goods order can cover flour, rice, lentils, oil and spices, while a market visit can introduce fresh herbs, root vegetables and fruit. Melbourne’s Prahran Market and Sydney’s Paddy Markets are useful for a teaching stop, but neighbourhood greengrocers may be more convenient and give participants an opportunity to speak directly with sellers. Ask vendors about seasonal produce, buy imperfect items for stock where appropriate and explain how those choices reduce waste. Participants can take notes on price, quality and substitutions rather than receiving a fixed shopping list.

Practical skills and community outcomes

Make learning visible by separating kitchen competencies from community benefits. The practical cooking outcomes can be checked during a final recipe exercise.

Practical cooking outcomes

The social outcomes should also be reviewed with participants. Short reflection cards or a group discussion can show whether the event felt respectful, useful and welcoming.

Community outcomes

Evaluation can be simple. Count attendance, repeat registrations, completed recipes and volunteer hours, and ask three questions: what participants learned, what they would change for accessibility, and what dish they want to cook next. The answers can guide the next cycle without turning a community meal into a bureaucratic exercise. Publish an anonymised summary, acknowledge teachers and suppliers, and share photos only with permission. A digital folder of recipes and short audio clips from cooks can preserve what was learned while keeping the focus on food rather than ceremony.

Partnerships, promotion and pilot formats

Build a small coalition before buying ingredients. Potential partners include a synagogue or Jewish community centre, an interfaith council, another faith’s congregation, a public library, a migrant community organisation and a culinary school. Each partner should have a defined role: kitchen access, teaching, interpretation, food safety, sponsorship or outreach. The practical structure resembles the campaign’s community swap-meet guide, which breaks a Jewish community event into a clear invitation, collection process, sorting method and shared purpose. A cooking adaptation can replace clothing categories with pantry needs, recipe cards and volunteer roles.

Promotion should begin with existing networks rather than expensive advertising. Place a short call for recipe ideas and volunteers in synagogue newsletters, council listings, library programmes, community centre noticeboards and local social media groups. In Melbourne and Sydney, neighbourhood associations and faith communities often share information through community Facebook groups, WhatsApp channels and local council events. Ask state Jewish federations and other cultural organisations to nominate speakers. Participants can vote on the final menu, just as The Next Big Jewish Idea uses community voting, while clear rules explain who may attend, how photographs are handled and what happens if an ingredient cannot be sourced.

Prepare a modest budget in Australian dollars and assign someone to track it. Costs may include kitchen hire, ingredients, teaching materials, insurance, printing and a small accessibility fund; sponsorship or a ticketed contribution can help, but no one should need to buy ingredients simply to take part. Follow Food Standards Australia New Zealand guidance, state and local council requirements, and current allergen rules. Appoint one food-safety lead, record ingredient lists for every dish and retain ingredient labels and supplier records wherever a kosher claim is made. Several delivery models suit different levels of commitment.

Pilot format Best suited to Food focus Key resources Participant result
One-off workshop Testing interest before a full series One Jewish holiday plus one guest dish Community kitchen and two facilitators Shared meal and tested recipe
Four-week series Building confidence and lasting partnerships Four holidays represented across the courses Host kitchen and rotating volunteer teachers Recipe folder, new contacts and shared references
Market pop-up Reaching families beyond existing congregations Holiday sampler with saleable portions Licensed kitchen, stallholders and event volunteers Food tasting, income and community visibility

For a first cohort, the four-week series usually offers the best balance of learning, hospitality and manageable risk. Run one class, listen to feedback, confirm suppliers and then decide whether to repeat, expand or add a public tasting. The same menu, equipment checklist and volunteer roles can be reused, while market produce and the holiday calendar determine each new cycle.

Start small, share generously

Choose one pilot city, one host kitchen, one partner faith community and one holiday theme for the first gathering. Form a planning group of six to eight people with responsibility for cooking, guest care, finance, promotion and community feedback. Set the date around public holidays, school terms and the needs of kitchen staff. Publish dietary and accessibility information during registration, provide ingredient lists in advance and make the venue, transport options and cost clear.

Bring the campaign’s community spirit into the launch. Use The Next Big Jewish Idea’s rules and contact resources as a model for transparent participation, then share the concept through state Jewish federation and interfaith networks. Fund the first event through a small local grant or community sponsorship, document what it costs and share the results with Jewish and cultural organisations. The first gathering should produce a shared meal, tested recipes and a clear record of participation so future events have a solid foundation. Confirm the kitchen, invite the cooks and open registration now.