L ifestyles /C ulture
Celebrating Community, Shabbat — at Wawa
PERFORMANCE BY LIZ SPIKOL | JE STAFF
IN SOME WAYS, it was a
pretty typical Shabbat dinner.

There was wine, there was
bread, there were candles. But
the wine was served from a
44-ounce plastic Wawa cup,
the bread was an enormous
Wawa soft pretzel and the can-
dles were electric.

The idiosyncrasies were
intentional, and suited the
venue — the new jumbo Wawa
at Sixth and Chestnut streets. It
was all part of Wawa Shabbawa,
a performance art piece by
Washington, D.C.-based Brian
Feldman, who partnered with
OneTable to bring Shabbawa to
Philadelphia after holding it in
Florida and D.C.

About 20 people attended
the event, which took place in
a communal area of the cavern-
ous store. They were young and
old, black and white, children
and parents. The tables had
flowered tablecloths and were
set with plastic utensils, plastic
cups and Wawa hors d’oeuvres
like prepackaged red grapes.

People wore name tags and
mingled in the seating area as
Feldman, dressed in a black suit
and tie and kippah, grabbed
supplies from Wawa plastic
bags in one corner of the room
and slid across the floor to the
tables like a Jewish Tom Cruise
in Risky Business. Once every-
thing was set up and the guests
were settled, Feldman started
things off by explaining how he
first came up with this idea.

It started, he said, with a visit
to a massive new Wawa in D.C.

The store was, until the opening
of the Sixth and Chestnut loca-
tion, the largest in the world,
and when Feldman walked in
and saw the communal seating
area, “I thought to myself, ‘This
is the perfect place to have a
Shabbat dinner.’”
It’s not the first thought
most people would have upon
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Sketch artist Aaron Krolikowski captures Shabbat dinner in pen and ink.
Photos by Liz Spikol
entering a new Wawa, but then,
Feldman has a quirky way of
looking at things.

The recipient of two Arts
and Humanities Fellowships
in theater, Feldman has cre-
ated, under the aegis of Brian
Feldman Projects, perfor-
mances like Dishwasher, for
which he washed dishes and
performed monologues in peo-
ple’s homes; Leap Year Day,
during which he leaped off a
ladder 366 times in 24 hours;
ChanulKEA, which consisted
of leading Google-translated
Swedish-language tours of
IKEA; and The Skill Crane Kid,
which required his remaining
inside a playable arcade game
for 16 hours — among many,
many other similarly uncon-
ventional productions.

So Shabbat dinner at Wawa?
That didn’t seem far-fetched.

“At the heart of it, the work
that I do [is about] taking regular
everyday experiences and putting
a filter over them and turning
the everyday into the extraordi-
nary,” said Feldman, who spent
his early childhood in Bensalem
and attended Abrams Hebrew
Academy in Yardley. “As far as
Wawa Shabbawa is concerned,
[it’s about] showing that Shabbat
is everywhere. You don’t have to
be at synagogue, but if you go
to synagogue, that’s great. If you
celebrate Shabbat at home, that’s
also great. But if you celebrate
it at Wawa, it still counts, it’s
still Shabbat, we’re still together.

We’re sharing this time.”
Brian Feldman was named Best Performance Artist of the Year by
Washington City Paper and Orlando Weekly.
After the assembled crowd and huge Wawa fan. Without
said the blessings and passed getting up from his seat beneath
the pretzel, Feldman intro- an Action News camera, Harris
duced “special guest” Craig
See Wawa, Page 31
Harris, a Philadelphia native
IN MEMORIAM
A RESOLUTION
on the death of
RAYMOND G. PERELMAN
The lay leadership, clergy, staff and members of Beth Sholom Congregation mourn the passing of one of our most
distinguished and beloved members, Raymond G. Perelman. Ray was a devoted husband to his beloved Ruth (z”l) for over
70 years and the patriarch of a family that included two sons, nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

Ray served as a member of our Board of Directors and as a trustee and officer of the Congregation for over 50 years.

When Rabbi Mortimer J. Cohen initially presented the conceptual plans that Frank Lloyd Wright had prepared for a new
Sanctuary in 1953, Ray Perelman was the first member of Beth Sholom’s Board of Directors to urge moving forward with
this daring architectural vision. The presence today of Frank Lloyd Wright’s only synagogue building in Elkins Park, a
National Historic Landmark, is in no small effort due to Ray Perelman’s vision and generosity.

Ray and Ruth also contributed greatly to the strengthening of the Jewish community on the Old York Corridor not only
thorough their generosity to Beth Sholom Congregation, but to the Perelman Jewish Day School whose Forman Branch on
the Mandell Campus continues to be an anchor to the Jewish community in our area to this day.

Ray’s philanthropy throughout the larger Philadelphia community to support Jewish and non-Jewish institutions has
forever changed the face of our community. We are deeply grateful for Ray’s generosity and vision and mourn his passing
along with his family. We affirm that the memory of Raymond G. Perelman will endure as an everlasting blessing.

The Board of Directors of Beth Sholom Congregation extends to his family and friends its heartfelt sympathy
and condolences.

This Minute is published
in remembrance of
RAYMOND G. PERELMAN
Yi’he zikhro barukh—his memory shall be for a blessing
Done this 30th day of January 2019
JEFFREY GORDON
President JEWISH EXPONENT
JUNE FEITH
Secretary JANUARY 24, 2019
19