Book a Shabbat Dinner

Open Table Shabbat · A 501(c)(3) nonprofit · NYC

A seat at the table for everyone.

Since the early days of COVID, we've hosted free Friday night Shabbat dinners across New York City — kosher food, real community, and no one turned away. Now we're bringing that same table to synagogues across Manhattan.

Bring Shabbat to your synagogue Support our work

Our story

It started with one table and a pandemic.

Gili began hosting free Friday night Shabbat dinners in New York City during COVID, when so many people needed a place to belong. He never stopped. For more than five years, he's welcomed anyone — Jewish or not, affiliated or not, alone in the city or just looking for a real meal and real company — to a kosher table with no cover charge and no questions asked.

Along the way, Gili has also built a kosher food donation network of his own — running a food bank that gets kosher food to anyone who needs it in NYC, young or old, no questions asked, alongside his weekly Shabbat dinners and one of the largest grassroots Jewish community networks in the city. Open Table Shabbat is how we're formalizing that work — and bringing it into synagogues that want to offer their own community something similar.

5+ yrs
Hosting free weekly Shabbat dinners in NYC, since the start of COVID
1,000+
Members of Gili's Jewish community network — NYC, Israel, France, Canada, and beyond

What we believe

There's always room for one more.

Every Shabbat table we set has an open seat — the same spirit we bring to every synagogue we work with.

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Welcome
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Community
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Open seat
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Belonging
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Home

For synagogues

Bring an authentic Shabbat dinner to your community

We handle everything — food, wine, dessert, hosting, MCing, setup, and cleanup — so your clergy and staff can just be present with your community. We stay open-minded and adaptable to whatever culture, program style, and wishes your community brings to the table.

Fully customizable, denomination-neutral. Gili isn't affiliated with any movement or sect, and every dinner is tailored to whatever your rabbi and community want — traditional or contemporary, quiet or festive, large or small.
Classic Shabbat Dinner
$360 program fee

Feeds up to 100 guests

  • Full kosher Shabbat dinner, wine & challah
  • Dessert table
  • Hosting & MCing for the evening
  • Complete setup & cleanup
  • Promotion of your event to our community
Premium Shabbat Experience
$540 program fee

Feeds up to 100 guests

  • Everything in the Classic dinner
  • Live program for the evening
  • A guest speaker, matched to your community
  • Extended hosting for a fuller program
  • Priority promotion to our community
1,000+

Gili's WhatsApp community spans NYC, Israel, France, Canada, and beyond. We can help promote your event and fill seats — or simply cater quietly for your own members, whichever you'd prefer.

Gili
Founder

Led by Gili

Gili is a community organizer who has spent years connecting people across New York City — and well beyond it — to social, religious, and spiritual life. He built a WhatsApp community of more than 1,000 people, and for over five years has hosted free Friday night Shabbat dinners with kosher food, welcoming everyone regardless of background or affiliation. He began during COVID and never stopped.

Gili also runs his own kosher food bank, drawing on a network of donors to get kosher food to anyone in the Jewish community who needs it — young or old, no questions asked. Open Table Shabbat is the next chapter of that work — bringing the same table, and the same welcome, into synagogues across the city.

Gili has hosted dozens of Shabbat dinners across NYC. References and five-star reviews from past hosts are available on request.

Beyond Shabbat dinners

Our food bank

We also run a food bank every day on Manhattan's Upper West Side, on West 81st Street between Amsterdam and Broadway — distributing pizza and other food to a nearby homeless shelter. Beyond that, we make regular trips across the boroughs, bringing free kosher food to anyone who needs it, young or old, no questions asked.

Book a Shabbat dinner

Tell us about your community

Once your date is confirmed, we'll send a secure payment link for the program fee. No payment is required to inquire.

Founder Gili · 929-430-8399
Email Gili@OpenTableShabbat.org
Serving Synagogues & communities across Manhattan & NYC