I’m Going Streit This Pesach

Looks like Manischewitz is closing up shop in Jersey City just in time for their busiest season. The good news is the company is relocating to their Newark base. The bad news is after reading this, I'm apathetic to the brand either way.

Pevzner said that in the last 20 years, as production has gotten increasingly automated, the factory payroll has declined to about 55 employees from more than 100.

Pevzner said he expects only about half of the current workers will move to Newark.

That will be difficult for some workers, including Russian Jews from Brooklyn who say the factory has provided more than just a living. One floor includes a small synagogue that hosts the occasional wedding, Pevzner said.

Marton Fromer, a Hungarian Jew who grew up in Russia, has spent 11 years at the company operating mixing kettles under the strict eye of mashgichim, the observant Jews designated to supervise kosher operations.

"To make matzo, it's a privilege for a Jew," he says.

"It's a ritual, it's holy."

But Fromer said that the move is trivial, as long as the matzo remains.

"The building is just bricks and the roof, like any building," he said.

"The matzo, it's the product that's important."

I guess the important thing is that the article ends on a positive note, even if the real life story doesn't quite pan out that way.