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This Cohen's For You

Matt Cohen introduces kosher beer,
brewed in Israel, to the United States.

— SOUTHFIELD —

PHIL JACOBS

Special to The Jewish News

Spitzer's

R

Harvard Row

abbi Jacob Simcha
Cohen raised his glass
when his son, Matt,
was born, and assumed that
he would continue the fami-
ly tradition and become a
rabbi.
Twenty-six years later,
Matt is not a rabbi, but
many people are raising
their glasses because of him.
That's because Matt
Cohen is the president of
Maccabee, a kosher beer
brewed in Israel that is now
being distributed to markets
such as Los Angeles, New
York, Philadelphia, Boston
and Baltimore, with Detroit
a possibility later this year.
"Eighteen generations of
rabbis, and now we have a
beer baron," said Matt's
father, who is president of
the Southern California
Board of Rabbis. "But we're
not sorry or disappointed in
his choice. We're proud of
him and his ac-
complishments. He's a sharp
young man."
The younger Cohen, who
lives in New York and
manages his business with
his father-in-law, Tempo In-
dustries board chairman
Moshe Bornstein, said that
he wasn't going out of his
way to avoid the rabbinate.
He saw the improvement of
the Israeli economy as his
calling.
"I was looking to do some-
thing altruistic for Israel,"
Cohen said. "I believe Israel,
which receives so much aid
from the U.S., cannot con-
tinue to live off of America. I
think it has to establish
itself through its own
means.
"You have Panama and
Eastern Europe all needing
U.S. dollars, and America is
going to have to aid these
democracies. I'm worried
that the government will
start skimming from the top
for something, and right now
Israel has the biggest piece
of that foreign aid pie."
Cohen added that the best
way for Israel to improve her
economy was to make a
name for herself on the
American market.
"We're
:---

Phil Jacobs is an assistant
editor for our sister paper, the
Baltimore Jewish Times.
Richard Pearl of The Jewish
News contributed to this
report.

.

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Oft The
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Mystiq

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26020 W. 12 Mile

Seven-Eleven

Franklin Rd.'
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Smith Drugs

Border's Book Store

9/Lahser

Southfield & Thirteen Mile

Phil 'B' Pharm.

Efros Rx

Evergreen & Twelve Mile

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— W. BLOOMFIELD —

Efros Rx

Bloomfield Apothecary

Orchard Lk. & Maple

Drake & Walnut Lake

Downing Rx

Walnut Lk. W. of Inkster

Moshe Bornstein, left, chairman of the Board of Tempo Industries, and
Matt Cohen, president of Maccabee Beer.

taking Israeli money and
spending it in America for
one reason only, to make
sure that these dollars come
back.
Maccabee beer is brewed
by Tempo Industries Ltd. in
Netanya. Tempo, which was
founded in 1954, owns 97
percent of the beer market in
Israel. The beer is being
marketed to the young, pro-
fessional upscale beer
drinker. It sees as its corn-
petition names such as
Corona, Moosehead and
Beck's. Maccabee won a
1989 international beer
competition in France out of
900 brews.
Last year Maccabee im-
ports reached 92,000 cases.
This year, the company is
hoping to import half a mill-
ion cases. The beer is also
the only Israeli beer to carry
kosher certification.
"We're trying to enter the
American secular market,"
said Cohen, who studied at
Ner Israel Rabbinic College
in Pikesville, Md., and a
yeshiva in Los Angeles. "It's
tough because we are pro-
moting Israel, and Israel is
not known as a beer brewing
nation," observed Cohen.
He said Maccabee will be
available in Chicago and St.
Louis in three months. A
Detroit distributor is being
sought.

Promoting itself as a tren-
dy beer, Maccabee uses a
loud, sexy television ad
campaign, largely in New
York, and the slogan, "Do
Life." One TV ad portrays a
young woman flirtatiously
circling an ice bucket with
the beer sitting on the hot,
desert land. The overvoice
comes on and says, "Life is
like beer. Sometimes it's the
wait that heightens the
ecstasy."

Another ad has a Chasid
dancing with a Maccabee
bottle on his head.
"We're looking for people
who are willing to spend a
little more money because
they are looking for some-
thing a little extra, a little
different," said Cohen.

"When you are marketing
a product from Israel, you
have so much more public
opinion to deal with. Middle
East problems show up in
our sales. Israel is a high
profile country, and that has
helped and hurt us. Look,
when China cracked down
on the students, sales of the
Chinese beers interna-
tionally went down.

"But with this beer, we're
telling people to support
what Israel stands for, and
we're also telling them to en-
joy themselves."

— BLOOMFIELD HILLS —

Devon Drugs

Telegraph and Long Lake

— OAK PARK —

Seven-Eleven

Lincoln Rx

Lincoln E. of Greenfield

Coolidge & Lincoln

Bornstein Bookstore

Oak Park Book Center

Greenfield & Ten Mile

Nine Mile & Coolidge

— BIRMINGHAM —

Metro News

Telegraph & Maple

— FARMINGTON HILLS —

Efros Rx

Seven-Eleven

Grand River & Drake

Orchard Lk. & Thirteen Mile

Warren Rx

Country Ridge
Market

Middlebelt & Fourteen Mile

Haggerty and 14 Mile Rd.

— NOVI —

Border's Book Store

Novi Rd. & 1-96

THEJEWISH NEWS

No ge4A

" *"/1

(‘41'

❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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