LOCAL NEWS
NEW DESIGNS
In Diamond Wedding Bands
Only Mayo Bakeries Producing
Pareve Kosher. Bread In Detroit
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
W
hen Leo Mertz
closed his bakery
at Dexter-Davison
Shopping Center at the end of
1988, the Detroit Jewish com-
munity was left with only two
sources of locally baked
pareve kosher baked goods ---
Zeman's and New Modern
Bakery.
Zeman's, with stores in
Royal Oak Township and
Southfield, sells directly to
the consumer. New Modern
Bakery, , on Linwood in
Detroit, sells to grocery
chains.
And although a strong
possibility exists another
Detroit baker will begin pro-
ducing kosher breads and
rolls, it appears highly
unlikely there will be a
return to the days not too long
ago when there were 38
Jewish bakeries in the
metropolitan area.
That figure was supplied by
Morrie Weiss, who says he
purchased Zeman's for
$50,000 in 1973 after area
rabbis told him of the needfor
kosher bakeries. Today, he
said, Zeman's, Star and New
Modern are the only three
Jewish-owned bakeries in the
Bakers Union Local 78,
which Weiss said at one time
had over 140 Jewish bakers
and was known as the Jewish
Bakers Union.
"It's a difficult thing to
have a kosher bakery today,"
said Rabbi Mordechai
Wolmark, director of
kashruth for the Council of
Orthodox Rabbis of Greater
Detroit; which oversees
Zeman's.
"For one thing, you have to
be closed on Shabbos, and
that's a big day in the bakery
business, what with wedding
cakes and the heavy shopping
done on Saturdays in the
general community," he said.
"And Friday night, of course,
is the big baking night for
those bakeries. But for a
kosher bakery, they must be
closed by sundown on Shab-
bos, and they must be closed
for all of Pesach.
"Bakeries are a very dif-
ficult business to begin with
— you bake at night and sell
by day, because people want
what's fresh. So between 12
midnight and 1 a.m., that's
when a baker starts his day."
Rabbi Wolmark said the
Council "had received a
number of inquiries from
bakeries considering going
kosher, but nothing worked."
He said one of those was the
New York Bagel Baking Co.,
which decided against „ the
change when company of-
ficials realized they would
have to be closed Saturday,
which is their busiest day.
He said a large Detroit
bakery has been talking with
the Council about becoming
kosher for several years and
may yet do so because of the
success achieved by national
companies Entenmann's and
Pepperidge Farms. The firm
would produce bread and rolls
locally but market cakes and
other speciality baked goods
nationally because, the rabbi
said, "the mark-up on bread
is not worth the expense to
ship it around the country.
"But they know if they
want to stay in business, they
have to keep up with the com-
petition." He declined to
'For one thing, you
have to be closed
on Shabbos, and
that's a big day in .
the bakery
business:
name the firm, but said it pro-
bably would use the OU sym-
bol of the Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations or the
OK symbol, both of which
have better national recogni-
tion than the Council's COR.
Mertz still bakes kosher
dairy products at his
restaurant in Oak Park.
He says he also sells baked
goods to such schools as Hillel
and Akiva and to caterers.
"I'm happy with what I'm do-
ing right now," he said.
New Modern Bakery, own-
ed by Stuart Spilkovitz, pro-
duces 39 varieties of pareve
breads and rolls, including
rye, challah, pumpernickel,
white and french breads. It
has been under the supervi-
sion of Rabbi Jack Goldman's
Metropolitan Kashruth
Council for 12 years and sells
to Farmer Jack, A & P, Great
Scott and Kroger and also to
Foodland of Ferndale.
As with Zeman's, all breads
are handbaked, in accordance
with Jewish law, Rabbi
Goldman said. "There are no
shomer Shabbos breads bak-
ed in Detroit. The breads and
rolls here are pas palter,
which means kosher bread
baked by gentiles under rab-
binic supervision. In
Brooklyn, N.Y., you can get
shomer Shabbos breads."
Zeman's also sells breads
and rolls to' Great Scott and
Kroger and to caterers,
synagogues, delicatessens
and the Jewish Home for
Aged.
Gary Wald, a Great Scott
buyer, said the company "is
looking to expand" its kosher
bread line in seven stores and
had been negotiating with
Zeman's, "but we couldn't
reach agreement on price.
Weiss is a pretty independent
sort of guy." He said the com-
pany sells Zeman's in its
delicatessen -areas. ❑
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Italians May
Upgrade PLO
Rome (JTA) — Italy will
soon upgrade the Palestine
Liberation Organization's
diplomatic status, the PLO
representative here said in an
interview published Sunday.
"The question has been
under discussion and now we
are in the phase of defining
the new terminology," Nerner
Hammad told the newspaper
La Repubblica. "A number of
formulations have been ex-
amined, among them 'general
delegation of Palestine' or
`permanent delegation of the
Palestinian state; " he said.
But Hammad, who said he
will meet this week with
Italian Foreign Minister
Giulio Andreotti, said he does
not believe Italy will actual-
ly recognize a Palestinian
state in the near future.
"I think that the status of
the PLO representation in
Italy will be raised, in a way
that will be a step forward
with respect to the current
situation, without, however,
going all the way to full
recognition," he said.
In Athens, meanwhile, the
Greek Foreign Ministry is
coming under pressure from
Arab diplomats to recognize
Israel and a Palestinian state
simultaneously.
The Arabs are said to want
such a move to take place
before the June 18 elections
in Greece. They fear the in-
cumbent Socialist Party of
scandal-ri -Wen Prime
Minister Andreas .Papan-
dreou will lose to the opposi-
tion Liberal Party, which
favors normalizing relations
with Israel and opposes
recognizing the proclaimed
Palestinian state.
.
Enlarged to show detail
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