last word
Kristen Kreider
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
K risten Kreider can pinpoint
the moment that exponen-
tially increased traffic on
the Weitzman National Museum of
American Jewish History museum
store website.

On Aug. 4, 2020, former President
Donald Trump, in a speech about
the Great American Outdoors Act,
pronounced ‘Yosemite’ as what can
only be deciphered as ‘Yo, Semite.’ The
Weitzman gift shop stuck the blunder-
turned-Jewish greeting on a T-shirt.

The store got 10,000 new customers,
according to Kreider.

As managing director of business
operations for the Weitzman, the
60-year-old Congregation Rodeph
Shalom member not only oversees the
museum’s store but also looks for ways
to expand the museum’s audience.

“It’s not just that first sale that the
museum makes a profit on. It’s all
those residuals,” Kreider said. “So
we’re always looking for new avenues
to promote ourselves.”
The Weitzman’s store has garnered
an international audience through its
viral “Yo, Semite” shirt, as well as a
“Secret Jewish Space Laser Corps”
keychain and more typical Judaica,
such as mezuzot and kiddush cups,
and Kreider hopes to bring those
people through the museum’s doors.

Kreider attributes the store’s broad
audience to their online presence and
variety of Judaica that is hard to come
by in suburban Jewish communities or
smaller cities with fewer Jews.

“If you live in, you know, Biloxi,
Mississippi, or Ketchum, Idaho, you
might not have a Judaica store in
your neighborhood or in your town,
so we do have a little bit of a captive
audience where people are forced
to search online,” Kreider said of the
Judaica business.

32 MAY 11, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
The East Falls resident has worked to
curate the Weitzman store with wares
that will draw in curious customers,
Jewish and not, a skill she developed
decades prior.

Always with a knack for knickknacks,
Kreider opened American Pie on South
Street in 1988, where she was a whole-
sale buyer for craft, furniture and artist
accounts all over the country. She
sometimes drove 1,000 miles a week
to meet with clients, but her hard work
paid off: For some sellers, Kreider
was one of their top accounts in the
country. With Kreider’s help, one client,
a jeweler, expanded her business so
much that she went from “renting the
cheapest hotel when she would come
to New York for trade shows to buying
Clint Eastwood’s home.”
Kreider was not particularly artistic
but had an eye for objects beauti-
ful and different. After a successful
menorah display in 1992, she began
regularly selling Judaica — despite her
Catholic upbringing.

“I always had this attraction to
Judaism,” Kreider said. “I felt some
kind of kindred connection; I couldn’t
explain it.”
Catholicism intimidated Kreider, who
was one of seven kids growing up
in Bethlehem. It felt “ominous” and
punitive. Though Kreider believed in
God, she questioned the role of a deity
in biblical stories and in her everyday
life. A babysitter to Jewish kids, Kreider
became familiar with the religion by
attending synagogue with the kids she
looked after. She enjoyed hearing the
rabbi’s sermons, which incorporated
current events and politics, making the
religion feel fresh and relevant. She
learned it was OK to question God and
other pieces of Judaism.

“Judaism just felt very warm and
cozy, without the wrath and the fear,”
she said.

Kreider started working at the
Weitzman museum store in 2010. She
closed American Pie in 2007 amid the
telltale signs of economic collapse and
a dissolving marriage.

But Kreider didn’t convert until 2012.

She took an introduction to Judaism
course at the Society Hill Synagogue
under Rabbi Avi Winokur. Despite
not feeling knowledgeable enough
to convert at the end of the course,
Winokur pushed her to make the leap.

“He was like, ‘You’re ready. If you
want to do this, there’s nothing else
required,’” Kreider recalled.

Kreider went to the beit din and took
a dip in the mikvah and a plunge into
Judaism. Her life and career had been
entwined with Judaism for years at
that point, but Kreider wanted to make
sure she converted on her terms and
timeline. “I wanted to do 100% for myself,”
Kreider said. “Not for a marriage, not
for a boyfriend, not for a job or any
other reason than in my heart of hearts,
this is where I wanted to be.” ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
CURATES JUDAICA AT THE WEITZMAN STORE



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