Around 1912, a group of Sephardic Jews left Turkey and Rhodes, and many settled in the American South. Some made their way to Atlanta, and within a few years established Or VeShalom. They served the burekas for tea and for Saturday desayunos (meaning breakfast in both Spanish and Ladino, a hybrid of Spanish and Hebrew influenced by Turkish, Greek and Italian ).

“Burekas were a piece of home that these immigrants brought with them,” said Adam Kofinas, the synagogue’s executive director. “Even today with all our technology, this is a link to our heritage. Machines could make the pastries quicker, but nothing matches handmade.”

The word “bureka” is the Hebrew and Ladino term for “borek” or “burek,” as the pastries are known in Turkey and the Balkans. The pastries come in many different forms today, made with buttered layers of phyllo dough, laminated doughs like puff pastry, or with an oil-based dough, as it’s done in this community.