Manischewitz facts for kids
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| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Kosher Foods |
| Founded | Cincinnati, Ohio (1888) |
| Founder | Dov Behr Manischewitz |
| Headquarters |
80 Avenue K, Newark, New Jersey
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United States
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Area served
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Nationwide |
| Products |
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| Owner | Kayco Kosher & Beyond - Bayonne, NJ |
Manischewitz is a well-known brand that makes kosher food products. It started in 1888 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company is most famous for its matzo (a type of flatbread) and kosher wine.
Manischewitz became a public company in 1923. This means people could buy shares in the company. It stayed under family control until 1991. Later, in 2014, a company called Sankaty Advisors bought Manischewitz. Today, Manischewitz is the biggest maker of matzo in the world. It is also one of America's largest kosher food brands.
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The Story of Manischewitz
Making matzo used to be a difficult process. Before the mid-1800s, matzo was often baked in special ovens inside synagogues. This was because the dough had to be mixed and baked very quickly. If it took too long, the dough might rise, and matzo is supposed to be flat.
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In 1888, Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz started the B. Manischewitz Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rabbi Manischewitz invented a special machine. This machine could cut and bake matzo in a way that made it easy to package and ship. This invention made matzo much cheaper to produce. It also made matzo available to more Jewish families across the United States.
The company grew quickly. By 1926, it was known as the largest matzo bakery in the world. It was also the first American company to export matzo to other countries.
New Products and Locations
In the 1930s, Manischewitz started making Tam-Tam crackers. These are small, hexagonal matzos. They were created so the company could make products all year round. The original square matzo was a big change for matzo-making. Before Manischewitz, matzo was often rolled and trimmed by hand. Making matzos by machine was a new idea at the time.
To serve the large Jewish community in the New York metropolitan area, the company built a second factory. This factory opened in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1932. The original Cincinnati factory closed in 1958.
In 1990, the company had to pay a fine. This was because of an agreement about prices with two other matzo companies. In 1998, Richard A. Bernstein bought the company. Its name changed to R.A.B. Food Group, LLC in 2004. Today, it is known as The Manischewitz Company.
From 2007 to 2014, a company called Harbinger Capital owned Manischewitz. Manischewitz is still the world's leading matzo maker. It is also one of America's top kosher brands. In 2011, a new large factory and main office opened in Newark, New Jersey. However, this facility closed in 2017, and the company moved to another location in New Jersey.
Manischewitz Foods
When Manischewitz first started making matzos with machines, some people had concerns. Some rabbis wondered if machine-made matzo could be used for religious purposes. They believed matzo should be made by hand. However, Manischewitz showed that they followed all the religious rules very carefully. Because of this, their machine-made matzo became accepted. During the Passover holiday, the company can make over 850,000 matzos every day!
Manischewitz has also bought other food brands. These include Horowitz-Margareten Matzo and Goodman matzo and macaroons. Besides matzo, Manischewitz makes other foods like cookies, pasta, and soups. Other well-known kosher brands that are part of the Manischewitz family include Carmel, Elite, Mother's, Rokeach, Mrs. Adler's, and Tradition. Many of these were popular kosher brands before Manischewitz bought them.
It's important to know that the Manischewitz Company does not make Manischewitz wine. They only license the brand name. The wine is made by a different company.
Manischewitz Wine
The Manischewitz winery is located in Canandaigua, New York. It is owned by E & J Gallo, which uses the Manischewitz name under a special agreement. The Star family started this winery in 1927.
Manischewitz wine is most famous for its sweet Concord wine. This wine is very popular in North America. It is made from a type of grape called labrusca and has a lot of sugar added. Because Concord wine became known as the kosher wine in the U.S., it is often used to celebrate Passover.
However, the sweet Concord wine usually contains corn syrup. Corn syrup is not allowed during Passover for many Ashkenazi Jews. So, Manischewitz makes special Kosher for Passover wines. These wines are sweetened with cane sugar instead of corn syrup.
The sweetness of Manischewitz wine is often joked about. But kosher wine does not have to be sweet. The reason sweet kosher wine became popular in America goes back a long time. Early Jewish settlers needed to make kosher wine for their religious rituals. They had limited choices of grapes that grew well in their areas. Also, they had little time to make the wine. The wine they made was often bitter, so they added sugar to make it taste better.
Many Americans are surprised to learn that there is a big kosher wine industry today. Vineyards in France and Israel make many different kinds of kosher wines. There is also a growing kosher wine industry in the U.S. These wines are often not sweet at all.
Advertising
The company used a famous advertising slogan: "Man-O-Manischewitz What a Wine!" This advertising campaign was even shown in the TV show Mad Men.
See also
- Kedem Winery
- Herzog Wine Cellars
- Streit's
- Yehuda Matzos
