Jewish Delis Finally in Israel

Tired of reading yet again about narrowly beating back divestment proposals in California Universities, (Berkeley and San Diego) by student government, I turned to the Forward for escapist folderol. Amidst the discussion of the serious and the portentous I found an article that surprised, yet rekindled memories of my Brooklyn youth.

I lived on Avenue M, just off East 27th Street which, when cars were not intruding, was also our stickball and sewer-to-sewer touch football playground. Farther down Avenue M was a shopping district including a couple of bakeries (Ebinger’s and the Elm), a movie theater (also called the Elm), a pizzeria, a Chinese restaurant and an Italian one, a toy store, grocery stores, an appetizer store, and two kosher delis, these latter a veritable foretaste of the world to come. One was the Palace, the other must have had a name, but I can’t recall it. In the delis everyone knew what everyone else had ordered as the waiters would shout to the kitchen, “Two salamis on rye, one tongue, two corn beefs and a side of fries.” The official drinks were Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray or root beer. In the summers, walking home from the elevated subway stop on East 16th Street, from whatever my summer job in the City was (we called Manhattan “The City”) I’d stop at the deli whose name I can’t remember and buy a knish or a hotdog mustard and sour kraut on a roll and eat it on the way home.

Such a street scene was duplicated on Avenues J and U and on Kings Highway so I assumed this was the norm in the Jewish world. You can then imagine my shock when I read in the Forward that a kosher deli in Tel Aviv called Ruben, was the first of its kind in the country! How could that be? Surely there are Ashkenazi Jews in Israel who would have brought the recipes and the skills to make corned beef, pastrami, tongue, knishes etc. from Eastern Europe.

Turns out, according to Gil Shefler who wrote the piece under review, that yes, there are Ashkenazi Jews in Tel Aviv but deli fare was not Eastern European in origin; it was American! Who knew? The idea wasn’t brought over to New York from the old countries; it was invented by immigrants from the old countries. Those who skipped the opportunity of coming to the land where the streets were paved with gold (AKA the Lower East Side) going instead straight to Palestine couldn’t bring what they didn’t have, so yes there are plenty of falafel joints, and humus is not unknown but only recently has the deli arrived.

So the question is how good is Ruben the delicatessen? Shefler (I picture him in my mind as munching on a knish) conducted an unscientific survey:
A recent immigrant from Washington, DC, who grew up on cold cuts from Katz’s Kosher Supermarket in Rockville, Md., gave it a measured seal of approval.
“The atmosphere’s a bit odd: It’s like a chic, scaled-down version of a deli. Where are the sweaty old Jews?” he said. “But for Israel it’s not bad. It’s what you’d expect a satisfactory Tel Aviv take on the food would be. I’ll be back because the meat tastes fine and I love my pastrami.” An immigrant from London, was even less enthusiastic (if you can imagine). While acknowledging that some guys from Long Island liked the place, “For me,” he said, “the sandwich here pales in comparison to the salt beef sandwiches served at Bloom’s in Golders Green, mostly on account of the bread.”

So a mixed reception ranging from “Not so great” to “Poor”—from the mavens who grew up with deli. To compound the negativity, food critic Janna Gur doubts the business plan. “Ruben is a fun place which serves good food, but I find it hard to believe deli foods will gain widespread popularity in Israel—it just doesn’t fit the mentality.” Maybe, but maybe Israelis are not the prime audience. You and I, Jews from America (especially refugees from New York or Chicago or Montreal) who, on a visit to the Holy Land hunger for corned beef on rye with a glezel Dr. Brown’s are, I imagine, the real sought after market.

OK; next week back to serious discussion of the world and its Jews.