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Rabbi Igael Gurin-Malous leads weekly services at Beit T’Shuvah’s addiction recovery center.<\/p>\n
According to Head Community Rabbi Igael Gurin-Malous, who leads weekly services, the concept of \u201creturn\u201d embedded in the word t\u2019shuvah informs the process of addiction recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone is interested in changing, and becoming better, and growing, and contributing to society \u2014 there’s no greater force,\u201d Gurin-Malous said.<\/p>\n
Braiding challah and creating community<\/p>\n
As the bakers filled in their babka or braided their challah (a traditional Jewish Shabbat and holiday bread), a large TV fixed to the wall flashed statements such as \u201cYou Matter!\u201d before changing to display a weekly schedule of liturgical events and daily to-dos.<\/p>\n
Program staff said these tasks ensure everyone stays on top of their communal responsibilities, an important part of recovery.<\/p>\n
Elkins, the baking instructor, started the program in 2017. On the surface, it\u2019s a vocational training program. Residents in the addiction recovery program can join the bakery as interns. They learn professional baking and business skills designed to help them land on their feet upon release.<\/p>\n
Jones, the recovery center\u2019s director, said the baking classes also teach \u201clife building\u201d and help patients learn to \u201cmaster your environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Elkins, who grew up in L.A., this endeavor has become a lifeline for family members. Her son Bradley went through Beit T\u2019Shuva and recently celebrated 10 years of sobriety. He\u2019s now the facility\u2019s director of community care. Elkins\u2019 brother and nephew were also residents. Three of her five siblings have struggled with addiction.<\/p>\n
The bakery\u2019s busiest time of year<\/p>\n
Elkins currently works with three interns and one employee. Interns must commit to six months to ensure they can turn out a consistently dependable product.<\/p>\n
During the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the bakery receives hundreds of orders. Elkins said that after paying her employees and covering expenses, the profits go right back into the addiction treatment program.<\/p>\n
Their challah comes in many varieties, including churro, za\u2019atar (a Middle Eastern spice blend), everything (like the bagel), jalape\u00f1o cheddar, chocolate, raisin and salted caramel. Their babka comes in chocolate hazelnut and bear claw flavors.<\/p>\n
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Jackie Elkins oversees bakery operations at Baked T’Shuvah. She initially got involved when her son entered the center’s addiction treatment program.<\/p>\n
Elkins didn\u2019t start out as a professional baker. But she said she has always loved to cook. When her son Bradley was a resident, she approached facility founder Harriet Rossetto and said she wanted to give back.<\/p>\n
Elkins noticed the facility imported all its challah. She said maybe she could bring in some mixers and teach residents how to make it. She got the go-ahead and the group grew quickly. After six months, Elkins said, they no longer needed to buy outside challah.<\/p>\n
How the bakery\u2019s leader leveled up her challah game<\/p>\n
Like many Angelenos stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Elkins spent lockdown improving her baking skills. That\u2019s when she first connected with Mahsa Golabi, a veteran baker who was in the process of leaving Bub & Grandma\u2019s, the famed restaurant and bakery whose breads permeate the L.A. restaurant scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had her over my house for like three months,\u201d Elkins said. \u201cWe got everything down to the science, all the proportions, butter versus dairy versus nondairy, how to set everything up, how to make sure everything was exactly the same every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Bashert,\u201d Elkins said, using the Yiddish word for \u201cmeant to be.\u201d \u200a<\/p>\n
Getting sober and reconnecting with Judaism\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael Sonekh, 29, is Elkins\u2019 newest intern. He was a biology major at UC Berkeley before he first fell into addiction. The son of Iranian Jewish refugees, Sonekh grew up attending \u200aan Orthodox Jewish day school in L.A. But it was \u201cpretty rough,\u201d he said, due to \u201cbeing queer,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n
In adulthood, Sonekh decided it was time to seek professional help for his addiction issues. He said choosing to enter Beit T\u2019Shuvah helped him not only with his substance use problems but also with the lingering resentment he felt toward Judaism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018This is something I’m probably gonna have to deal with,\u2019\u201d Sonekh said.<\/p>\n
He gave Baked T\u2019Shuvah a shot after the facility\u2019s leaders suggested he \u201ctry new things.\u201d He said the precision he learned in undergraduate lab work has come in handy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of days here, it almost never feels like work,\u201d Sonekh said.<\/p>\n
Bakers look forward to \u2018kadima\u2019<\/p>\n
When he gets kadima\u2019ed, the facility\u2019s Hebrew term for being released, Sonekh said he plans to continue studying at USC for a master\u2019s degree in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. He said he\u2019s still considering whether to continue with more schooling after that.<\/p>\n
Sonekh said his experience at Beit T\u2019Shuvah made him believe he could one day start a business of some kind.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
A baker presents a braided challah ready to be baked. <\/p>\n
Elkins, the bakery director, said participants discover many things through the program. Some end up \u201ceven finding a spouse here,\u201d Elkins said. Her son Bradley did.<\/p>\n
She pulled out her phone to show off a picture of a blond toddler: \u201cOur first grandson.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About a week before Rosh Hashanah \u2014 the Jewish New Year, which starts Friday evening \u2014 a group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[181586,181587,10276,180880,181584,181585,48,52,51,47,50,49,180883],"class_list":["post-460569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-addiction-recovery","tag-babka","tag-bakery","tag-challah","tag-jewish-bakery","tag-jewish-new-year","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-rosh-hashanah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}