Kristine M. Kierzek

Special to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Rabbi Moshe Luchins and his wife, Sheina, love food. Cooking and community are central to their lives, and when they moved to Wisconsin about nine months ago they were looking for ways to connect.

Being new to the area, Luchins and his wife initially started visiting different grocery stores and setting up a “kosher awareness table.”

“We go to different stores, we’ve done the Grafton and Mequon area, and we sit and give out samples of classic kosher food and recipes, like a kugel. We did a matzo ball soup,” said Luchins. “There was such positive feedback from the community, whether it was someone who grew up eating Jewish foods or someone had never tried them. Then there were the people who keep kosher, and they walk in and they can try the samples.”

The overwhelmingly positive feedback inspired them to post recipes and additional information online and use social media to increase awareness, education and interaction.

Thinking bigger, they’re launching the first annual Jewish Food Festival, a two-day community celebration to be held Sunday Aug. 18 and Monday Aug. 19 at Virmond Park in Mequon.

“We are interacting with the community in a whole new way,” said Luchins, who was hired by the Peltz Center for Jewish Life. “We weren’t sure how it would work out, but people are really fired up.”

Inspired by a Jewish food festival in his hometown of Scranton, he saw food as a way to reach a new audience in a city of festivals.

“My role is community engagement. We felt the need to really reach out and extend our reach into the community in a whole new way,” said Luchins, about launching the inaugural event. “We love food, who doesn’t? The Jewish holidays are all about food, or at least a good percentage of it, and one of the ways I always connect with people is over food.”

Jewish food spans the globe and goes back centuries. Celebrations include food, and every recipe tells a story, whether the comfort food of potato knish (pastry wrapped around a savory potato filling) and noodle kugel, or the braided challah bread. What makes Jewish food stand out in its own way are the ancient dietary laws that govern not only what can be eaten, but the preparation and the way you consume foods.

They’re covering a selection of Jewish foods at the inaugural festival, which will be entirely kosher. Pastrami sandwiches, shwarma, falafel, rotisserie chicken, cabbage rolls, chicken schnitzel, potato knish, noodle kugel and chocolate babka will all be on hand. Pita breads will be made fresh that morning. There will also be a few other festival favorites, French fries, cotton candy and churros.

Foods will be served both Sunday and Monday from noon to 7 p.m. On Sunday the feature is rotisserie chicken, available from 4 to 7 p.m. On Monday the dinner will be glazed beef ribs from 4 to 7 p.m. Live music will be from 5 to 7 p.m. both days. Foods are priced from $3 to $15.95.

During a test run tasting for volunteers, Fagie Rapoport noted the sampling of foods available will be just a peek into the things that connect people across time and place.

“This is a welcome with food. We all love to eat,” said Rapoport, who with her husband, Rabbi Dovid Rapoport and Chabad Mequon helped build the Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon.

“There is Jewish food that stems from all over, Poland, Russia, Israel, and classic Middle Eastern. We chose some more popular and tasty foods,” added Luchins. “Sweet noodle kugel, the good old corned beef on rye, those are very classic.”

Foods will be prepared by volunteers, and event proceeds will go to support programming for the Peltz Family Life Center.

“We have a commercial kitchen at our center, and a lot of this will be a team effort with a lot of volunteers and chefs from the community,” said Luchins, noting they’ll be preparing rotisserie chicken on a spit and using “massive” deep fryers for the schnitzel and falafel. “I got a lot of messages from food trucks wanting to participate, but this is an all kosher event. We are working with Scott Shully at Shully’s Cuisine and Events, who is helping us plan, as well as Andrew Swofford (Happy Dough Lucky).”

Three decades ago, Shully catered one of the Rapoport family weddings, and he’s worked with them ever since. When they needed advice, they turned to him to help the congregation launch its inaugural Jewish food festival.

“It is kind of fascinating to me,” said Shully. “I’ve been catering for 36 years, a Polish Catholic kid from the south side, catering kosher dinners. I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of rabbis who educated me and a lot of my company, about what kosher is, and people have provided me with some of the standards of Jewish cuisine. It is not a big deal, you just have to understand what you’re working with and follow the guidelines.”

“I’ve never heard of another Jewish food festival open to the public,” Shully added. “This is awesome, and I’m looking forward to taking my wife and grandkids.”

The volunteer-run festival will celebrate all branches of the Peltz Family Life center, Fagie Rapoport said. In addition to a variety of kosher foods, there will be activities for kids and families. The Fun Zone, with admission for $3 for children, includes face painting, a petting zoo, an inflatable zone with a slide, mural painting and more.

“We want to make this a community event,” said Luchins, noting two activities are geared around favorite foods. “Kids are going to be able to make kosher dill pickles with The Spice House. You’re not going to be able to eat them right then, you’ll be pickling them and bringing them home. Another act of celebrating is the challah. Kids will be able to learn to braid the challah and be hands-on.”

Festival organizers also reached out to local senior living communities. “We hope everyone will come and join us for this event with Jewish music and food,” said Luchins, noting they worked to make the event wheelchair and stroller accessible.

“The ultimate thing we can do is show how we are here for the community,” said Luchins. “A lot of the outbreaks of craziness of people doing things is people not being familiar with who and what we are, so we are here to show we are here for the community and to support each other. This is for people who keep kosher and who can’t eat other places, people who don’t eat kosher anymore but love it, people who are in a different community or a different Jewish community and want to familiarize themselves with our Jewish community, and people who don’t know much about us and want to get to know our community. Hopefully it will really break down those barriers of people being unfamiliar with what we’re about and just get together and have a good time.”

The festival is open from noon to 7 p.m. each day at Virmond Park, 10606 N. Lake Shore Drive, Mequon. Admission and parking are free. For more information, see chabadmequon.org/festival.

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What kosher means for food

All the foods featured at the Jewish Food Festival will be kosher, which means certain rules are followed. Kosher observance means following dietary laws that oversee the preparation and consumption of foods.

“One of the things we want to share with people is kosher awareness,” said Moshe Luchins.

Here are some of the basics:

In Hebrew, the word kosher translates to “fit,” defining foods that are fit for consumption.

All preparation of processed foods and eating establishments requires supervision or certification by a rabbi (or a kashrut supervision group).

Kosher observance means meat and dairy products are not prepared or consumed together. Separate utensils and serving items are used, so they are never mixed. There is a waiting period observed between eating meat and milk.

Animals defined as kosher must have “split hooves” and “chew its cud,” which includes cows, sheep, goats and deer.

Pork and shellfish are forbidden.

Animals used for meat must be slaughtered in a particular manner called shechitah. Certain parts of the animal, including the blood, are removed.

Fruit, vegetables and grains are typically kosher, but must be insect free.

Wine and grape juice must be certified kosher.

The word pareve (or parve) means a food is OK to eat with either milk or meat.

Kashrut (or kashruth) means the Jewish laws concerning food and dietary concerns.

To learn more about Jewish food and keeping kosher, go to, chabad.org