Celebrating Fat Bodies in Religious Community

In December 2019, Rabbi Minna Bromberg was celebrating Hanukkah with her daughter's preschool class at a Jerusalem synagogue. After the class enjoyed sufganiyot -- traditional jelly-filled fried dough treats -- one of the adults present called out, "Let's get back to dancing -- unless you've gotten too fat from those sufganiyot!" Bromberg didn't find the punchline funny. Instead, it became a "birthing point," she said, for her blog, Fat Torah, launched in 2020, to "end weight stigma in Jewish Communal Life," according to the website.