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Maura Koenig perfected her challah-baking process when she attended and hosted weekly Shabbat dinners in New York City. Now back in her hometown of Syracuse, she’s baking and selling dozens of the braided loaves of bread to community members and Syracuse University students.

Maura delivers the challah bread, typically eaten on Shabbat and during Jewish holidays, to Syracuse community members and offers pickup from Walnut Park on Fridays for SU students. She donates $1 from each purchase to the Syracuse Jewish Federation of Central New York’s COVID-19 relief efforts. Customers can order challah by filling out a Google Form, and Maura provides information about flavors, prices and pickup on an Instagram page.

Maura grew up on Livingston Avenue but had been living in New York City for the past seven years. When businesses in New York City shut down in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, Maura’s mother drove 11 hours to bring her home to Syracuse. Maura anticipated staying in Syracuse for only a few weeks, but she’s still here, six and a half months later.

She lost her job with Shorashim, an organization that coordinates Birthright trips to Israel for Jewish young adults, due to the pandemic. After being on her own in New York City, living at home was an adjustment for Maura. But even without Shabbat gatherings, she continued to bake challah bread for her family on Fridays.

Koenig donates $1 from each purchase to the Jewish Federation of Central New York COVID-19 relief efforts. Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor

“It’s a hobby, right? It’s something that I’ve enjoyed doing,” Maura said. “It’s something that kind of would just keep me sane.”

Her parents had never seen her bake challah before, and they were so impressed that they posted about it on Facebook.

Maura reached out to her rabbi in Syracuse to ask if she could sell challah to the congregation. The business started out small, with former colleagues, friends of friends and elderly synagogue members primarily submitting orders. The ability to have the challah delivered appealed to the customers most, especially since yeast and flour were not widely available during the beginning of the pandemic.

While baking the challah started as a hobby for Maura, it also helps her connect with the Jewish community.

“It certainly can help brighten up people’s lives,” said Stew Koenig, her father. “It has meaning. For Jewish people, it’s not just a loaf of bread. It’s symbolic of Judaism, and that brings them some warmth. And for people who aren’t Jewish — and obviously, anybody is welcome to order and eat it — it’s a great new experience.”

About three weeks ago, an SU parent found Challah At Me and reached out with an order inquiry. Maura’s bread business then received 35 orders, mainly from SU parents, within an hour. In the span of 24 hours, Maura had received 80 orders and had to close the Google Form.

Due to the university’s COVID-19 regulations, Maura decided to set up a pickup time for SU students on Fridays at Walnut Park.

“I also thought that that would be a really awesome way to kind of build a little community, like bringing people together that wouldn’t have necessarily maybe (connected),” Maura said.

Some of the students received texts from their parents telling them to go to Walnut Park, but they didn’t know that it was because their parents had bought them challah, Maura said.

Stew, who is a part-time instructor at SU, came with Maura to the pickup time at Walnut Park on Friday. Maura doesn’t just hand the loaves to students when they come to pick up the bread, Stew said. Instead, she also chats with them.

Koenig has customers pick up her challah bread at Walnut Park. Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor

“It isn’t like Maura just checks it off and hands it to them. She’s very, very engaging. She’s very interested in people, likes to get to know people,” Stew said. “This is kind of the field she’s been in for the last number of years: engaging young people in the Jewish world.”

Doctoral student Sara Jo Soldovieri and her friends came across Challah At Me after inquiring on Facebook about where to find challah in Syracuse for Rosh Hashanah. They’ve now been ordering from Maura for the past few weeks. Soldovieri has had the original and sesame-flavored challah so far, and she’s planning to get the brown sugar flavor next.

“Especially during classes online, office hours online, lectures online — it’s so nice to get out even for a few minutes,” Soldovieri said. “It was so cool just to be in community with other folks who you share similarities with.”

SU freshman Ruby Bender found out about Challah At Me through a text from her mom.

For Bender, who is taking all her classes online, going to Walnut Park to pick up the challah gave her an opportunity to get out of her dorm. After arriving at the park, Bender stayed for about an hour and talked with Maura.

Koenig’s business started out small, with former colleagues, friends of friends and elderly synagogue members primarily submitting orders. Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor

“(Maura) didn’t expect it to get this big, but now that it is, she’s so ready to keep going with it, which I think is cool,” Bender said.

Maura has had to streamline the process and give SU parents specific instructions about how their students can pick up the challah. She even left one loaf of challah in a tree for a student who couldn’t come at the designated pickup time.

Last week, Maura made 83 loaves in the span of two 17-hour days. Making one batch of four loaves requires about a four to five-hour process. But her goal isn’t to start a bakery or become a challah baker by profession. In addition to baking challah, she is applying for jobs related to the Jewish community.

“My goal in whatever I’m doing is, I want to make sure I’m creating Jewish community,” Maura said. “And if it’s like bringing challah to college students who can have this special taste of home or bring back memories or even just like a nice treat … that’s kind of like what I’m doing.”

Published on September 29, 2020 at 10:32 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak