World’s largest Shabbat dinner in New York sets new Guinness record

The blessings were led by the chefs themselves, with an emotional candle lighting by Omri Miran, a former Hamas held hostage, and his wife Lishay.

By Jewish Breaking News

On Friday night the world’s largest Shabbat dinner was held on the top floor of New York’s Javits Center and set a Guinness World Record.

Billed as “The Big Shabbat,” the event was conceived not just as a spectacle but rather as a statement that if Tel Aviv could once set the record and Berlin could break it in 2015 with 2,322 guests, then the world’s second-largest Jewish city could “do better,” as organizers tell the Jewish Telegraph Agency.

Planning began more than a year ago with Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center assembling a team of 68 chefs, hundreds of volunteers, security planners, kosher supervisors, and Guinness officials in a coordinated attempt that required near perfect precision.

The result was a Shabbat scaled to stadium size.

Celebrity Jewish chefs Beejhy Barhany, Jake Cohen, Joan Nathan, and Adeena Sussman curated the menu, while Broadway stars Steven Skybell and Shoshana Bean opened the night with a soaring rendition of “Sabbath Prayer” from Fiddler on the Roof.

Guests then took their seats after watching an AI generated video featuring humorous Shabbat commentary from digital recreations of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, and Anne Frank.

The blessings were led by the chefs themselves, with an emotional candle lighting by Omri Miran, a former Hamas held hostage, and his wife Lishay.

From there the long communal tables stretching across the convention hall floor came alive as volunteers delivered a multi course kosher meal built around vegetarian and dairy dishes including salmon fillets, miniature potato kugels, vegetable lasagna, salads, and enough baked goods to feed a neighborhood.

To qualify for the Guinness record, attendees were required to check in by 6:30 p.m. and remain seated during the formal count, a logistical feat in itself.

At exactly 8:56 p.m. Guinness adjudicator Andrew Glass, a Brooklyn Jew who also partners with Acme Smoked Fish, stepped onto the stage and announced the number everyone had been waiting for, which was 2,761 verified seated participants.

Moments later the Jewish a cappella group Six13 took the stage with Queen’s “We Are the Champions” to celebrate the historic occasion.