Manischewitz: The Matzo Family, The Making of an American Jewish Icon

Alpern, Laura Manischewitz

ISBN 10: 1602800030 / ISBN 13: 9781602800038

Published by KTAV Publishing House, Inc., Jersey City, New Jersey, 2008

About this Item

A story of the both the Manischewitz family and the company they founded. Begins with the story of the author's great-grandparents (great-grandmother from Memel and great-grandfather from Salant, both in Lithuania); their immigration to the United States under an assumed name, Manischewitz; their settlement in Cincinnati, and her great-grandfather's first efforts to bake matzos for his local Jewish community, which eventually grew into the largest Jewish food company in America. Illustrated with occasional black & white photos, and 4 pages of color photos. 6¼ x 9¼ inches, 202 pages. In very good, almost "as new condition," with the author's e-mail address written on the rear dust-jacket flap. Also enclosed are some e-mails and handwritten notes about the genealogy of the family, apparently from a previous owner of the book who was a member of the family.

Seller Inventory # 001328

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Manischewitz: The Matzo Family, The Making of an American Jewish Icon
• Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., Jersey City, New Jersey
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1602800030
• ISBN 13: 9781602800038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Genealogy
  • Companies
  • Biography

About this title

Synopsis

In this highly readable volume, we travel back to the European roots of a remarkable family who crossed the ocean from Lithuania with little baggage but their religious faith and a young man's ambitions.

I'm going to bake matzos this year...We ll see how it goes, said Behr Manischewitz. One bright spring morning in 1888 a young immigrant father named Behr makes this offhand announcement to his modest wife Nesha. Within record time, the ambitious young Talmudic scholar has a burgeoning bakery and is on his way to success. But the years go by and the growing family is ever more complicated, colorful and sometimes explosive. The women of the Manischewitz family who mostly operated behind the scenes played a critical role in providing the mortar that held the family together. As for the men, they covered a broad spectrum: some more able than others, some more affable than others, some more religious than others.

What united them, men and women alike, were bonds of kinship, as well as a firm allegiance to the Jewish people. With these qualities they kept the family business alive and in the family for over 103 years until 1990 when it was sold to various conglomerates as were other ethnic American family food businesses: Ronzoni, Franco-American, La Choy, and Lender's.

Laura Manischewitz Alpern recounts the family's history through the lives of its leading men and women. Her insider' s tale of the family that transformed the world of matzo and became a symbol of 100% kosher reminds us why the name Manischewitz remains magical still. Man, oh Manischewitz, what a story! From the Introduction by Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History Brandeis University

About the Author

Laura Manischewitz Alpern was born in Cincinnati, where she grew up with stories of her great-grandfather Dov Behr Manischewitz, founder of the Manischewitz Company. Later she lived in New Jersey and Israel, then settled with her husband in Geneva where she raised two daughters and worked for three decades as librarian in an international organization. She is a member of the Geneva Writers Group and has been published in Offshoots; Writing from Geneva.