Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

62 | JULY 20 • 2023 

An Ode to Star Bakery
I 

recently read that Star Bakery in Oak Park is closing, a century-old 
business that was founded in 1915. It might be said that Star was a 
Jewish landmark in our community. Many a Jewish Detroiter bought 
rye bread, challahs, hamantashen for Purim, rugelach, cakes and many 
other assorted Jewish-style baked goodies at Star.
The closing of Star Bakery was big news. Alison Schwartz wrote about 
it in the June 20, 2023, JN. The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Crain’s Detroit 
Business and local television stations also covered the story. Suffice it to 
say that the demise of a 100-year-old business is important 
because an active piece of our collective history is now rele-
gated to memory.
Allan Gale wrote to me, noting that Star Bakery was clos-
ing, with a question he asked himself: “I’m trying to remem-
ber if there were other Jewish bakeries here when I moved to 
the area in the late ’70s?” 
Allan remembered the Modern Bakery, Mertz Bakery and 
Miami Bakery, but knew there were more than those three.
So, I decided to research the Star Bakery and Jewish baker-
ies at-large in Metro Detroit over the past 100 years. A dive into the William 
David Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History led to some interesting 
Jewish bakery discoveries.
Star Bakery accounted for the most mentions in the Archive. 
Beginning in the 1920s, it was cited 539 times, largely for adver-
tisements or entries on lists of donors for community events 
and organizations. My favorite ad is “Riot at Star Bakery,
” which 
noted a “fabulous variety of goodness,
” and included advice from 
“The Kibitzer” (Dec. 6, 1957, JN).
When Star moved to Oak Park, it became a landmark. Many 
ads for other businesses stated that they were “next to” or “near” 
Star Bakery. 
I must admit, until this search, I did not know that there was 
a “Jewish Master Bakers Association of Detroit,
” 1920s-1970s. 
Its 1943 ad lists 22 Jewish bakeries in the city. It also notes there 
would be “no more sale of sliced bread” or “double wrappings.
” 
Furthermore, although there “may be certain limitations” regard-
ing “variations” of bread, it emphasized that “NO RATIONING 
OF BREAD IS EXPECTED.
” Why? This ad was published in the 
midst of WWII (Jan. 15, 1943, JN).
While there are no longer 22 kosher and Jewish-style bakeries in 
Detroit, several are still making bread and goodies today. I know of the Bake Station, Zeman’s, Dakota, 
the kosher bakery at Grove Kosher Market, Diamond Bakery, the Miami bakery, Modern Bakery (for-
mally the New Modern Bakery) and Zingerman’s Bake House in Ann Arbor. Not to mention kosher 
baked goods at Meijer stores and that fabulous rye bread at Stage Deli. I’m sure my list may be missing a few stores.
For further reading about the history of Star Bakery and its partner bakery, the Diamond Bakery in West Bloomfield, as well as the people 
behind the scenes, I recommend a fine article published last year by JN’s Esther Allweiss Ingber: “Jewish Bakery Renewal” (Feb. 24, 2022). 
To really understand the impact of Jewish bakeries, all you need to see is the JN photo of Molly digging into a cupcake brought by Bruce 
Weiss from Zeman’s Bakery to Able Abe’s Special Camp for Special Children (Aug. 14, 1998). Molly looks very happy. 

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

