46 | APRIL 9 • 2020
From the William Davidson Digital Archive
of Jewish Detroit History
accessible at www.djnfoundation.org
Looking Back
T
o say the least, Passover will be dif-
ferent this year. Amid the COVID-19
pandemic, with social distancing in
practice, Jewish families are reconsidering
how they will plan for their
seders. Indeed, Jewish life is
now a matter of virtual bat/
bar mitzvahs and Shabbat
services. Just the act of gath-
ering matzah, gefilte fish and
other Passover groceries will
have been an adventure.
I thought about super-
markets and shopping
for Passover while cruising the William
Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit
History this week (while working at home,
of course, keeping my social distance). I was
especially intrigued by the idea after watch-
ing a replay of Sue Marx’
s film, Remember
When: The Jewish Community, which recently
aired on Detroit Public TV
. In the film, Jerry
Cook makes the point that the story of the
grocery business in Detroit is also a history
of Jews in the city. I did some research and
the evidence from the Archive demonstrates
that Cook is spot-on.
Today, Kroger, the largest food store
chain in the nation, and Michigan-owned
Meijer stores dominate the grocery scene in
Detroit. There are still independent markets,
of course, and a few small chains, but the
largest Detroit-based supermarket businesses
closed their doors or were bought out years
ago. With their demise, a significant piece of
Jewish Detroit history also disappeared.
You may remember shopping at Chatham
and Farmer Jack or Food Fair, Great Scott
and Wrigley’
s. All of them were Jewish-
owned, family-operated supermarket chains,
mostly led by groups of brothers. And they
all had grocery items that Jews depended
upon.
At Chatham, the
Weisberg brothers — Alvin,
Peter, Harold, and Bernard — ran the
supermarkets. Great Scott was owned and
managed by Nate, Leonard, Sam and Zach
Fink. There were 53 Great Scott stores when
Wrigley’
s, a chain operated by John and
Nathan Lurie, bought them. Wrigley’
s then
had more than 100 supermarkets.
The last of the large supermarket chains
was Farmer Jack. It was the ancestor of
the merged Food Fair and Lucky Markets,
whose origins lay in Tom’
s Quality Markets,
begun by Al and Tom Borman in the 1920s.
Al’
s son, Paul, was the last Borman in charge
of the more than 100 Farmer Jack stores.
Of course, the most famous of the mar-
kets in the historic Jewish neighborhood
in Detroit was the Dexter-Davidson Super
Market — the “House of Foods.
” Founded
by Norm Cottier in the 1930s, this market
catered to the tastes of Cottier’
s Jewish
neighbors, carrying the foodstuffs they
needed for everyday meals and for hol-
idays.
While the chains cited above are long
gone, there are still places to shop for
Passover. One is Johnny Pomodoro’
s,
established by Dan Sonenberg and John
Taormina in 2008. This market is close
to many current concentrations of Jewish
households, and it has become a bit of a
landmark. It reminds me of the historic
advertisements I have found in the Archive
for businesses that state, “we are located by
the Dexter-Davidson Market.” And, like
all the stores cited in this column, it does
sell matzah, gefilte fish and other Passover
supplies.
Want to learn more? Go to the DJN
Foundation archives, available for free at
www.djnfoundation.org.
Mike Smith
Alene and
Graham Landau
Archivist Chair
The Glory Days
of Jewish-Owned
Grocery Stores
h
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s,
0s.
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Chatham, the
berg brothers — Alvin,