Families gather for Shabbat & Pizza Picnic at Dell JCC. Credit: Rachel Stern

By Rachel Jamail

Shalom Families is Shalom Austin’s umbrella group that facilitates and supports social and educational events for parents and children in Austin and surrounding areas. Last month, they gathered families for a Shabbat & Pizza Picnic that filled the Dell JCC with song, dance and fun.

While some parents grew up not exactly looking forward to services, their children didn’t need any convincing to attend this one. With a celebrity appearance from everyone’s favorite “Shabbat Guy,” Mr. John from the Zeifman Family Early Childhood Program, along with plenty of pizza, it was exactly the type of event that made observing the Sabbath fun and joyful for the entire family.

In a room full of community members, families sang both traditional songs and ones about dinosaurs, held hands and danced, and shared pizza and grape juice with new friends and old ones. Shalom Families’ Shabbat & Pizza Picnic was so much more than a religious observance. It was a conduit for building community, for fostering connections into friendships and making the Dell JCC more than a building, but a beautiful home too.

Looking around as the group sang the HaMotzi (blessing over bread), people were filled with gratitude for the community of young families that surrounded together, for Shalom Austin who brought everyone together and for all those who envisioned and then built the Dell JCC to be a cornerstone of Jewish life in the city.

The event also invoked pride for members of the Shalom Austin Families Parent Committee, where volunteers have the opportunity to work alongside other parents to help bring programs like this to fruition. Because of Shalom Austin and Shalom Families, families spent their Friday night building memories, infusing a love of Shabbat in children and turning strangers into friends.