local
Shmita Year Complicates Etrog Sourcing
trogim have the reputation of
being a fi nicky fruit: Th ey’re
expensive and challenging to
grow, with the trees prone to infection
and bugs.

Th is year, as Sukkot approaches, the
etrog is only becoming more notori-
ous — now more expensive to buy and
harder to get from Israel, where many
prefer to source the citrus.

But local purveyors are saying not to
panic. While they navigate infl ation and
the agricultural implications of the shmita
year, they are trying to make sure these
challenges are not impacting Jews looking
to participate in the Sukkot mitzvah.

Last year marked the shmita year, the
seventh year in a seven-year agricul-
ture cycle, where the Torah instructs the
Jewish people to let the earth lie fallow,
to not tend to their fi elds or harvest
their crops. While few American Jews
abide by these laws, Israel closely follows
them. In 2014, the last shmita year, etrog
production was cut by 50%, according
to Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development.

Depending on where you’re buying
your etrog in Philadelphia this year, it
may be harder to come across one from
Israel and a little more expensive. Bala
Cynwyd-based Meir Badush is selling
etrogim this year from Morocco, where
his brother operates a farm.

Due to infl ation, Badush has increased
the price of his etrogim and lulavim sets
from $60 to $75.

“Th ere’s still a slight increase in price,
like everything else,” he said. “Shipping
costs, all the materials, everything costs
more money.”
Rabbi Yochonon Goldman of B’nai
Abraham Chabad in Center City is expe-
riencing a similar issue. Th is year, all of
his etrogim are coming from Calabria,
Italy; it’s more expensive to buy Italian
etrogim, and because of the Chabad’s
budget, Goldman has put a cap on the
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Jerusalem Gift Shop owner Rachel Gabay checks the quality of the etrogim
she ordered from Israel.

price he’s willing to pay.

“Th ere’s always a range of prices ...

there are people that spend hundreds of
dollars to be able to do this mitzvah in
a beautiful way with a beautiful fruit,”
Goldman said. “But we basically tell our
suppliers, ‘Th is is the price range that we
need to stick to.’”
Th is allows the Chabad to keep the
cost of its etrogim and lulavim sets close
to what it’s been in previous years, but
there’s still a risk that the quality of the
fruit may not be the same as in past years.

Some Jews prefer Calabrian etrogim
even when it’s not a shmita year, Goldman
said. Many believe that Moses instructed
the Jewish people to go to Italy to source
their etrogim.

But for Jews who still want to sup-
port Israel over the holiday, they need
not look too far. Jerusalem Gift Shop
in Rhawnhurst will still source etrogim
from Israel this year.

According to owner Rachel Gabay, it’s
permissible to harvest etrogim during
the shmita year if there is specifi c super-
vision and rabbinical blessings. Just like
other sellers, Gabay paid a bit more this
year for her etrogim.

“Th ey brought them all the way from
Eretz Yisrael by airplane, and they pay
taxes and pay everything, so we try to
compromise with them,” Gabay said.

While local retailers have tried their
best to keep prices low for buyers,
wholesale sellers must also navigate cost
increases and shipping delays. It’s part of
the job and always has been.

Aaron Weider, the owner of Famous
Etrogim in Rockland Country, New York,
who sources etrogim for Germantown
Jewish Centre, said that following 9/11,
fi nding and distributing etrogim in the
Northeast U.S. was more challenging
than it was today. He’s used to a diffi cult
Sukkot season.

“It has its challenges; there’s no ques-
tion about it,” he said.

In 2001, Sukkot began on Oct. 1. In
addition to limited fl ights and transpor-
tation in the United States following 9/11,
it was diffi cult getting products from the
Middle East, including Israel, to the U.S.

Th is year, shipping costs for etrogim
have increased signifi cantly, but Weider
plans to only modestly increase his
prices. He hopes that growing interest
in people completing the mitzvah of
shaking the lulav and etrog will increase
demand for his product.

At the end of the day, local etrogim sell-
ers are keeping with this philosophy, too.

Marcy Bacine, co-manager of the
Little Shop in Germantown Jewish
Centre, doesn’t expect a large profi t
from the 75-plus etrogim and lulavim
sets she plans to sell this year.

Most businesses aren’t relying on
etrogim exclusively to keep them in the
black, and behind these businesses are
Jews who just want to make sure people
have access to the materials they need
for the holiday.

“I view this as a mitzvah that people
are doing, so I don’t look to make a lot
of money from it,” Bacine said. JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Photo by Sasha Rogelberg
E SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER



local
Lipkin’s Bakery Finds New Home,
Partner in Overbrook Park’s Best Cakes
A Courtesy of Paul Spangler
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
fter closing its Northeast
Philadelphia location in May,
Lipkin’s Bakery has found a
new home to sling knishes.

Last month, Lipkin’s Bakery
reopened as Lipkin’s Best, merging with
Overbrook Park’s Best Cake Kosher
Bakery after it acquired Lipkin’s. The
bakery on Haverford Avenue just east of
City Avenue will maintain Best Cake’s
Keystone-K kosher certification.

Previously, Lipkin’s Bakery was super-
vised by Ko Kosher services; it served
dairy products and was open on Shabbat.

The bakery will con-
tinue to produce most of
Lipkin’s original menu,
bar its dairy knishes, in
compliance with the
pareve hechsher. Lipkin’s
pizza knishes will remain
on the menu but will use
dairy-free vegan cheese.

Lipkin’s Best will also con-
tinue to serve cakes and
challahs but will be closed
on Saturday for Shabbat.

“I figured, you know,
two kosher bakeries are
better than one,” said Lipkin’s owner
Steven Nawalany about the new
partnership. In July, Best Cake owner Paul Spangler
approached Nawalany about a potential
partnership. Spangler was a longtime
customer of Lipkin’s and had previously
worked with Nawalany on business
endeavors that never got off the ground.

When Lipkin’s closed in May, the two
had an opportunity to finally bring a
partnership to fruition.

“Lipkin’s has an iconic name in the
Philadelphia market,” Spangler said.

“Along with that, they have a very loyal
customer base. And so for those reasons,
along with others, it was a good marriage.”
Nawalany closed Lipkin’s Northeast
Philadelphia location — the bakery’s
home for 47 years — due to the rising
cost of ingredients and trouble hiring
front-of-house staff. Lipkin’s move to
Best allowed Nawalany to keep his
back-of-house bakers and serve more
wholesale clients.

Lipkin’s Best’s Keystone-K hechsher
and location near Lower Merion offers a
chance to expand the bakery’s Orthodox
clientele. So far, Nawalany said the part-
nership has been successful. Halfway
through Rosh Hashanah, the bakery sold
out of knishes, having exceeded what they
planned to sell over the two-day holiday.

“I didn’t realize how big of a demand
there was for these knishes,” Nawalany
said. Though Nawalany and Spangler plan
to expand wholesale endeavors and con-
sider catering options, Nawalany hopes
Lipkin’s can maintain a wholesale pres-
ence in Northeast Philly.

The fruitful business of the new bakery
may have come with some ease, but Lipkin’s
transition to Best Cake’s Keystone-K
hechsher took some elbow grease.

In addition to Nawalany and his bakers
making the move to Best Cake’s location, so
too did Lipkin’s 1,700-pound knish lamina-
tion machine, which needed to be kashered
before being transported to the bakery’s
Overbrook Park location. Nawalany and
Spangler disassembled the machine and
thoroughly cleaned each part.

According to Keystone-K adminis-
trator Rabbi Yonah Gross, because the
knish machine does not generate heat
(like an oven or stove would), the kasher-
ing process was not as elaborate.

However, Spangler did go the extra
mile to ensure the equipment was suited
for his bakery: The removable parts of the
machine took a dip in the mikvah.

Cleansing objects in the mikvah is not
always necessary in the kashering pro-
cess, but in this case, certain parts were
submerged to satisfy any doubts regard-
ing its origin. Though the theory is not
certain, the idea behind dipping objects
in the mikvah has been compared to
the reasons why a person converting to
Judaism enters the ritual bath.

Because Spangler is Jewish and owns
a kosher business, dipping the knish
machine in the mikvah was an import-
ant part of the bakeries’ partnership.

“When a person first converts to
Judaism, they now can use their body
towards more sanctified purposes,”
Gross said. “So, too, these products
are now going to be used for sanctified
purposes.” Gross clarified, tongue-in-cheek,
that, indeed, making kosher knishes
for the Philadelphia Jewish commu-
nity would hopefully fulfill a sanctified
purpose. JE
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