EMPTY SHABBAT TABLE DC

02 Feb @ 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

EMPTY SHABBAT TABLE DC

We are a collection of humans from the greater DC area whose hearts are breaking.  We create a Shabbat dinner table in DC every Friday night with an empty seat for each hostage to let them and their families know that we are holding them in our hearts and keeping attention on their plight.  The table is for every hostage regardless of nationality or religion.  We will continue until every hostage is home safely.  There are no speakers, no organizations, no affiliations, no program. The empty Shabbat table speaks for itself. This effort is made up of a horizontal network of individual volunteers from the greater DC area, Jews and non-Jews, Israelis and non-Israelis.

A group of volunteers has been setting up the Empty Shabbat Table on the National Mall every Friday since mid-October in order to keep attention on the hostages who remain in Gaza.  As the situation sadly continues, we need to expand our pool of volunteers and would welcome your support for this communal effort.

Temple Beth Ami has volunteered to set up the “empty table” on the National Mall on Friday, February 2nd. To sign up to help, click here. Please be sure to select the February 2nd tab in the sign up sheet.

This takes place on the Mall in DC and we need 15-20 volunteers per shift. There are three shifts from which to choose as shown below. You will help either set up or tear down the tables and chairs and the place settings. We need two volunteers to drive the moving truck from Rockville to the Mall, and back.

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm (set up)
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm (set up and tear down)
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm (tear down)

This is a pretty big set up and tear down as there are currently 14 tables used and 112 chairs, one for each current hostage. We set up a place setting for each, some flowers in vases, and we will bring 10 challot. The challot will be sent home with the volunteers at the end of the event. We will also answer any questions (the best you can) to any passersby that wants to stop and chat. The park police keep an eye on the event to make sure we are safe. Any financial contributions are welcome, but the Brotherhood will pay whatever expenses we incur. If any of you would like to make a challah for the event, that would be terrific!