Matzo Ball facts for kids
The Matzo Ball is an annual Christmas Eve nightlife event and party held in a number of major cities in the United States targeted primarily at young Jewish singles and organized by Mazel Events, LLC (previously the Society of Young Jewish Professionals).
Contents
Background
Historical
Historically, Jews in Europe would hide in their homes and villages during the Christmas holiday, for fear of violence from locals. In the United States, Christmas and Christmas Eve typically serve as times of family gathering and prayer for Christians and many others.
The atmosphere of religious liberalism and tolerance in the United States has offered American Jews the opportunity to enjoy the holiday period.
At the same time, many American Jews do not engage in the same family-gathering activities on the Christmas holiday that Christians in the United States do.
Social
With Christmas Day a work holiday throughout the United States, there is a space of unfilled free time during which much of American commerce and society is not functioning, and which could lead to a sense of alienation or loneliness for American Jews.
Typical contemporary activities were usually limited to "Chinese and a movie"—consuming a meal at a Chinese restaurant, which tend to be open for business on the Christmas holiday, and watching a movie at the theater or at home, stereotypically a rerun of It's a Wonderful Life.
With the rise of the Matzo Ball and similar local events, the night of December 24 has become an opportunity to transform this otherwise brief period of solitude into one made to gather, socialize and catch up with old friends. The event is an opportunity to meet a lot of like-minded people.
Event
The first Matzo Ball event was held in Boston in 1987 and organized by local social figure Andrew Rudnick.
As a Boston University senior in political science and part-time bartender in 1986, Rudnick attended a Jewish young professionals Christmas Eve gathering at a local hotel, where he found a staid atmosphere similar to a high school prom, with women on one side of the room, and men on the other. The environment, including the strong lighting, bad music, and stale latkes were not conductive to meeting people and having fun.
Following that incident, Rudnick began developing the idea for hosting an event the next December 24 at the nightclub he then bartended part-time at, Metro. He and his friends built up awareness of the upcoming event through word of mouth, especially through fraternities and sororities with Jewish memberships, posters, and flyers hand-distributed, including at malls. Some coverage of the event by local radio DJs helped spread the word and 2,000 people attended the first Matzo Ball. Rudnick soon quit his job in commercial real estate to focus on the organization and event, and expanding to other cities.
The name of the event and the name of the organization were created on-the-spot in 1987. The event name was inspired by Rudnick's Irish-American coworker's question about Jewish cuisine, and the organization's name was thought up by Rudnick and his Italian-American nightclub bosses, Boston entertainment mogul brothers John and Patrick Lyons, who were concerned about offending both Jews and Christians with the stereotypical name Matzo Ball for an event being held on Christmas Eve, and harming the club's reputation.
After a successful repeat of the event on Christmas Eve 1988, Rudnick expanded to New York and Boca Raton in 1989, and added Chicago, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles in 1990.
The event has permeated American Jewish consciousness, even winding up in fiction, and has been cited as a desired destination in online gossip publications, and its Boston event has seen attendance by two professional football players, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
Events
Logistics
Tickets and crowd
Matzo Ball events are generally held at popular nightclubs in the cities in which the event is located. The average age range of the crowd spans from the 20s through 40s, unless otherwise specified. A ticket purchased at the door can cost $30–40.
Attendance at the New York event can average from 1,100 to 1,700 people, with an entry line forming outside the venue 30 minutes before the scheduled start time.
In some cities, the Matzo Ball has been linked officially or unofficially to other Jewish events on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, such as volunteering at local food banks.
Crowd diversity
The Matzo Ball is open to the public, and couples, older people, and non-Jews looking for a Christmas Eve activity are welcome to attend.
In some Matzo Ball cities, a number of attendees are from out-of-town, particularly in cities that have large numbers of visitors or where families tend to gather for the winter holidays, such as Boca Raton, which has many New Yorkers in-town during the holiday period.
Locations
Rudnick and SYJP have experimented with expanding the Matzo Ball to new cities when they believe that have found the infrastructure and potential clientele of young, upscale Jewish people necessary to make the event successful.
As of 2021, the event is being held in the following cities:
- Boston, the original site of the event
- Los Angeles
- New York
- south Florida:
- Washington, DC
