For years, Texas Shabbat 500 has gathered hundreds of Jewish students, professors and faculty from all over the state for a night of free food, guest speakers and religious celebration.

Last Friday, the annual event hosted by UT students brought together the local Jewish community from all sects for one night to observe the Sabbath, a weekly holiday starting Friday at sundown until Saturday night. Event coordinator Ally Karpel said the dinner allows students to connect with each other in ways that are often difficult with the busyness of student life. 

“I loved the idea of bringing everyone together,” said Karpel, a communication sciences and disorders junior. “We all live scattered lives throughout the week so it’s hard to connect with one another. (Texas Shabbat) is important because you get to see people from all corners of campus who you may not have seen before.”

Although the dinner is held at UT, Texas Shabbat  500 welcomes people from around Austin and beyond. 

“It’s just a time to rest and connect with family and friends,” Karpel said. “The idea is to bring everyone together regardless of if they typically observe Shabbat and are very religious or not.”

Karpel is one of three students chosen to be event coordinators for this year’s dinner. Communication studies sophomore Reagan Bazarsky, a fellow co-coordinator for the event, said she was excited for the opportunity to explore her interests in event planning, especially on a large scale.

“We’re three students and there’s not an ‘adult’ who is leading us,” Bazarsky said. “It’s cool that the three of us are legitimately running this event on our own.”

Although Bazarsky said they felt up to the challenge of running this large event as students, she said the wide scope of the event presented some difficulties in ensuring the dinner would respect certain religious laws.

“It has been interesting because you have to plan for little things that you wouldn’t normally think about,” Bazarsky said. “For example, we couldn’t use a microphone after sunset because it used electricity and we wanted to respect students who are Orthodox Jews.”

The event held three different services to accommodate different Jewish groups. Bazarsky said Texas Shabbat aimed to bring students and faculty together from
all sects of Judaism.

“We’re able to have everyone come together no matter what,” Bazarsky said. “No matter how reform, how conservative, or how orthodox you are, everyone can come and feel respected.”

As event coordinator for the previous Texas Shabbat 500, Moriah Sonsino, international relations and global studies senior, also aimed to create an inclusive environment for the event that invited Jewish as well as non-Jewish people to attend.

“You have to take into account all different interests,” Sonsino said. “You want to make sure that the event is pluralistic and holistic so that everyone feels included and welcome.”

Despite recent hate incidents targeting the Jewish community around campus and throughout Texas, Sonsino said it is important for different people to come together and respect one another.

“We want to look after our own community and other minority communities as well,” Sonsino said. “We want to look out for each other.”

After several years as an organizer, Sonsino said unification is her favorite aspect of the event.

“My favorite part is bringing the Jewish as well as other communities together and combining the UT spirit with all of it,” Sonsino said. “Being able to show unity is so important and that’s what Texas Shabbat 500 does.”