Why American Eagle Now Has a Mezuzah at its
Times Square Flagship
American Eagle Outfi tters now has a mezuzah on
the front door of its fl agship Times Square location,
courtesy of Chabad, the Chasidic outreach movement.

The parchment with Jewish holy text in an oblong
metallic case, traditionally a marker of a Jewish home
or establishment, was affi xed on the apparel brand’s
door as part of the recently concluded convention of
CTeen, Chabad’s youth group. At a concert in Times
Square on the night of Feb. 25, thousands of teens
from more than 30 countries gathered to sing Jewish
songs — and witness the mezuzah being hung.

Out of all the retailers in Times Square, how did
Chabad choose American Eagle?
That question has proven surprisingly hard to
answer, as representatives of neither Chabad nor
American Eagle agreed to speak on the record about
the relationship between the Chasidic movement and
the apparel brand.

But a clue to the reason lies with American Eagle CEO
Jay L. Schottenstein, a Jewish philanthropist whose
family has donated tens of millions of dollars to a range
of Jewish organizations. ArtScroll’s translations of the
Talmud, for example, bear the name “Schottenstein,”
and the family has given to a range of Jewish institutions
in Columbus, Ohio, where the Schottenstein family is
based. American Eagle’s revenue for fi scal year 2022
was projected at nearly $3.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Chabad is among the benefi ciaries of the Jay and
Jeanie Schottenstein Foundation, which gave more
than $200,000 to the movement’s institutions in 2020,
the most recent year for which tax documents are
available. Since 2014, American Eagle has also given
Chabad access to the retail giant’s gigantic advertising
screens in Times Square.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaltman, a Chabad rabbi from Columbus,
told the New York Jewish Week that American Eagle is
“the most inclusive brand there is in America.”
“I salute them,” Kaltman said. “It meant so much to
every teenager who was there. It was an expression of
Jewish pride.”
Stefan Schiff , a senior and tennis star at Bexley
High School in the Columbus, Ohio, area, was the
conference attendee who placed the Jewish ritual
object on the store’s doorpost.

“This is a big honor for me,” Schiff said in a statement.

“I am proud to be a part of such a tremendous display
Attendees of a Chabad teen convention in Times
Square pose next to the mezuzah affi xed to the
doorpost of American Eagle Outfi tters’ fl agship store.

of Jewish pride together with my Jewish brothers and
sisters from around the world.”
Chabad said that the ritual object is “Times Square’s
fi rst-ever mezuzah,” a bold claim that is almost certainly
inaccurate. The New York Jewish Week did not determine
conclusively whether a mezuzah is, at present, affi xed to
any doors in one of the busiest public spaces of the most
Jewish city in the country. But less than a decade ago, a
building on 40th Street and Seventh Avenue was home
to a synagogue, the Garment Center Congregation. That
building’s address currently boasts the Margaritaville
Resort Times Square. (The synagogue, incidentally, is
suing the building’s developer).

Additionally, which set of blocks, exactly, counts as
“Times Square” is up for debate, though an expansive
defi nition proposed last year by New York City itself
includes parts of the Garment District, which was once
heavily Jewish. Those borders also include at least one
synagogue. ■
Jacob Henry | JTA
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Weekly Kibbitz



local
Delaware Area
Study Reveals
Uncertain State of
Jewish Community
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Your bleeding
heart Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
A Courtesy of the Jewish Federation of Delaware
ccording to the 2022 Community
Study of Jewish Delaware and the
Brandywine Valley, 93% of Delaware
area Jews feel a sense of belonging to
the tribe. Fifty-two percent feel a “great
deal of belonging,” and 41% feel “at least
some.” That’s the good news.

But the other side of the story is, if
not alarming, at least undefi ned. Among
almost 26,000 Delaware Jews, the
denomination with the highest rate of
identifi cation, at 43%, is “no denomina-
tion.” Out of more than 12,000 Jewish
households, only 31% are affi liated with a
synagogue. And only 19% of Jews in the
region claim to be “immersed,” meaning
they maintain “high involvement in most
aspects of Jewish life.”
The study, commissioned by the Jewish
Federation of Delaware and conducted
by Brandeis University, was based on a
survey with 1,605 respondents. While that
is not 100% of the community, it is reveal-
ing, and cause enough for the Jewish
Federation of Delaware to consider some
new approaches to community building in
the 21st century.

“We have to constantly understand
our community that’s often evolving, and
we have to adapt to change,” said Seth
J. Katzen, the president and CEO of the
17 %
Jewish Federation of Delaware
President and CEO Seth J. Katzen
Federation. Matthew Boxer, the assistant research
professor at Brandeis who led the study,
listed several recommendations in a
PowerPoint summarizing his fi ndings. They
included promoting connections between
diff erent Jewish communities in the
region, promoting ties to the local Jewish
community for newcomers, strengthening
outreach to interfaith families and invest-
ing in Jewish education, among others.

“I do think it is fair to say that there isn’t
a tremendously strong connection to the
local Jewish community. But that’s not
unusual. It seems to be pretty common
across the country,” Boxer said.

Katzen is taking those suggestions and
turning them into a strategic planning task
force that is going to take a deeper dive into
the data. The Federation leader said that
many of the fi ndings confi rmed what he
already knew. But several were surprising,
The Jewish Federation of
Delaware is trying to reach out
to younger generations of Jews.

The Sweater Mill
115 S. York Road, Hatboro 215.441.8966 Open Monday-Saturday 11-4
especially the number of interfaith families
in the community. That number was more
than 50%. But the Delaware Federation
has not organized much programming for
interfaith families in the past.

Two other priorities moving forward
need to be off ering Jewish learning
opportunities and engaging the next
generation, according to Katzen. The
Delaware Federation does not have
enough millennial leaders. But the presi-
dent wants to bring more in. How to build
those connections, though, is unclear.

Katzen said the fi rst step is getting
community input. But he also has
some ideas. The CEO is thinking about
opening a lifelong learning and leader-
ship development center. He wants to
talk to synagogue leaders about how
they can collaborate more. And fi nally,
he hopes to meet younger adults “where
they are” to see what they want out of
Jewish practice.

“Some want to be culturally engaged.

Some want to be spiritually engaged. It’s
much more segmented. We have to fi nd
commonality. I think that’s a task of the
Federation,” Katzen said. “You can’t just
create a program, do it at the JCC, and
people will fl ow in. It’s no longer the case.”
Ellisha Caplan, 46, is involved in the
Jewish community with her husband,
Nigel, and their two sons, Sam, 15,
and Aidan, 10. The family belongs to
Congregation Beth Emeth in Wilmington.

Both boys attend religious school. And
since the Caplan parents, who are from
Virginia and England, respectively, do not
have family in the area, they built a close
circle of friends from the Siegel JCC,
where their children attended preschool.

The mother said that “Jewish life, being
Jewish, is at the center of our lives.” But
she also admitted that it is competing
with other activities.

“We have a lot of things going on,”
she said.

Arlene Johnson, 63, also raised her
two children, now 30 and 27, in the
synagogue, Temple Beth El in Newark.

The kids went to Hebrew school and
became b’nei mitzvah. Johnson remains
a member at Beth El and calls the commu-
nity “one big family.” At the same time,
similar to the Caplans, she said “Judaism
is part of my life.” But she feels like she’s
part of two communities because she has
a separate circle of non-Jewish friends.

“But the Jewish part is extremely
important to me,” Johnson said. ■
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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