With the approach of Rosh Hashanah, many people associate the High Holiday season with food and culinary themes.
The sights and smells of traditional dishes trigger wonderful nostalgic memories of Jewish holidays spent with our parents or grandparents and other family members. Smells of the usual brisket and stuffed cabbage, but also new ingredients such as gourmet honey, honey comb or leeks. .
In the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, there were a select few kosher food stores and distributors that dotted the Baltimore landscape.
Local wholesalers such as Joffe Brothers, A&L Food Distributors, H.L. Carpel of Baltimore Inc. and Lazarus Bros. Wholesale Grocers handled most of the Jewish holiday ingredients supply.
The large regional distributors were unfamiliar with the kosher or Jewish palate since there were fewer kosher consumers back then, as compared to today’s $13 billion kosher food industry.
Several local stores sold kosher ingredients and dry goods as the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s rolled around and the Jewish community continued migrating uptown. Food-A-Rama at Liberty Heights, Giant at Menlo Drive, Farm Fresh Supermarket at Greenspring Shopping Center and others had a solid Jewish shopper base around this time of year.
However, Shapiro’s Food Market dominated the Jewish holiday shopping market with mostly kosher products — and with three locations at its peak.
Jack’s Grocery was a little nook back then, selling haimishe-style foods. When Harry Shapiro retired in the late 1980s, Jack’s expanded to the current Seven Mile Market store format.
Farm Fresh Supermarket was located at Greenspring Shopping Center. Great store, great location, but it couldn’t handle the Jewish holiday customer demands at Rosh Hashanah time. Additionally, Eddie’s Supermarket/Victor’s Market marketed “Jewish-style” cuisine.
The winner was and still is Wasserman & Lemberger kosher butchers and Pariser’s Bakery. The late Bernard Wasserman and Sol Lemberger knew their customers and were titans in their craft of kosher butchery.
Although the interesting smells wafted through the air of the store, you knew you would receive great quality meat for the holidays with great service. They even delivered! My bubbie, Sonia Diamond z’l, would call in her meat order many weeks in advance before Rosh Hashanah.
Pariser’s Bakery survived and thrived while other bakeries became extinct. The store was founded in 1889 by Adolf Pariser in downtown Baltimore. Beryl Zerivitz, Pariser’s grandson, moved the business to its current location at 6711 Reisterstown Rd. in 1976. Current owner Motti Margalit brought his own Israeli-style of baking to the shop, including the best non-dairy chocolate in town!
Wishing all of you a Shana Tova!
A Cheswolde resident, Jeremy Diamond is the author of “Tastemakers: The Legacy of Jewish Entrepreneurs in the Mid-Atlantic Grocery Industry.” This article is dedicated to the memory of Allan D. Gallant z’l, an early proponent of bringing grocery stores to underserved neighborhoods.
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