The oldest Jewish bialy and bagel shop in New York City is being rescued by two Muslim cab drivers — and they plan to keep it kosher.
Coney Island Bialys and Bagels — founded in 1920 by Morris Rosenzweig, a Jewish immigrant of Bialystok, Poland — was about to go out of business until two unlikely proprietors saved it.
Zafaryab Ali and Peerzada Shah said the first bagels and bialys they ever tasted when they immigrated here from Pakistan more than 16 years ago were made at the Gravesend noshery.
“I felt I had to save this store,” said Ali, 54, who worked for Rozenzweig’s grandson Steve Ross for 11 years, making bagels and bialys by hand, committing to memory the recipes Rosenzweig brought over from the old country.
Ali and Shah said geopolitics that divide Muslims and Jews have no bearing on making 95-cent bagels and their flatter, oniony cousins, the bialys.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ali said of the cross-cultural differences. “I make the food for everyone.”
“I don’t even think about it,” added Shah, 47. “I just look at this as a business opportunity.”
The partners said they plan to keep using all the old kosher-certified equipment but have spiffed up the place, replacing floors and walls.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz dropped by yesterday to wish the new proprietors mazel tov and salaam aleikum !” Markowitz vowed to return for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
NOTE: YWN has been told that this tore is not currently under any Kosher certification.
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7 Responses
Before folks here get all excited, what hechsher does the place have? Their website only says that they are “kosher-pareve” but it does not list any hechsher at all. We are way past the days when we people used to say “a bagel is a bagel and has to be kosher.”
Don’t throw dirt when you don’t have to. I only buy with quality hechsher but many eat without it and if it prevents one Jew from sinning that is great
To Heimishe Mom: Just as we may not know what hechsher the store uses, if any, we also don’t know for a fact that they don’t. If they don’t, what’s to stop anyone, including Heimishe Mom, from dropping by, and suggesting they do use a mashgiach, since that would most likely increase business? That would also result in some income for a heimish Yid for supervision.
This is wonderful 🙂
Some lead by example.
yitzchoky: how would buying food w/o a hechsher prevent one from sinning???
If they are Moslems there should be no fear of them using lard to line the baking pans so all that remains is if someone is machmir on pat palter.However, a hechsher for greater certainty is good. In fact, there was a salad store in Geula that operated for years without a hechsher. Finally they decided to get one just to satisfy those who demand hechsherim no matter what.