Jews face having to find Passover foods without Stop & Shop

Stop & Shop employees are on strike after having been without a contract since February, and are resisting the company's attempts to cut pay, benefits, vacation and personal time. Board of Representative Nina Sherwood, center, and other Stamford representatives join with striking employees on the line Thursday, April 19, 2019 at one of the Stamford, Conn. stores asking customers to honor the strike and not enter the store. The purpose of the rally is to stand in solidarity with Local 371 and Local 919 in their demands for a fair contract, Sherwood said. less Stop & Shop employees are on strike after having been without a contract since February, and are resisting the company's attempts to cut pay, benefits, vacation and personal time. Board of Representative Nina ... more Photo: Matthew Brown, Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Matthew Brown, Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 353 Caption Close Jews face having to find Passover foods without Stop & Shop 1 / 353 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN — The Stop & Shop at 112 Amity Road, which was open Friday but picketed by striking workers, offers a large selection of foods that are kosher for Passover because of the Jewish population in and near the Westville section, which isn’t as large as it once was but still is sizable.

“I’m lucky in that I happen to have done a lot of my Passover shopping. To buy the rest I won’t cross the picket line,” said Rachel Bashevkin of Westville, who is on the board of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel.

She said the Amity Stop & Shop offers “both essential things and then really delicious desserts and sweet things,” with a large segment of the store devoted to kosher foods. “The have two rows the entire depth of the store and another table,” Bashevkin said.

A woman who works for Congregation Beth El Fairfield, 1200 Fairfield Woods Road, said members tend to go to the Amity Stop & Shop because it carries a better selection of kosher foods than stores in Fairfield. She asked that she not be named. ShopRite in Fairfield also carries kosher foods.

Passover, the eight-day celebration of the Hebrews’ escape from Pharoah (seven days in Israel), begins at sundown Friday, April 19. Food that is kosher for Passover goes beyond normal kosher laws to forbid anything that might be made from or come in contact with leaven. The tradition is based on the story of the Exodus from Egypt, in which the Hebrew people, led by Moses, left so hastily that they couldn’t wait for their bread to rise.

Jewish population of United States

1.9 percent



Source: Pew Research Center

Jewish population of United States

1.9 percent



Source: Pew Research Center Photo: Bob Luckey Buy photo Photo: Bob Luckey Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Judaism in the United States 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

While produce and matzo can be purchased anywhere and kosher meats and dairy products are available at the Westville Kosher Market, Stop & Shop offers a lot of the items that make the Passover seder special.

“They have all kinds of pastry to spare having to do that baking, which is tricky” because of the prohibition on using anything containing yeast, or leaven, Bashevkin said. “They also sell all kinds of chocolates, they sell herb teas from Israel and all kinds of pantry items but they’ve got the marking for kosher.”

Other kosher for Passover items at Stop & Shop have included sorbet, different matzos, such as whole wheat and egg, frozen foods and ground horseradish, which must be preserved in vinegar that is not made from wheat.

Bashevkin said the strike and the decision of whether to cross the picket line is especially significant for Jews approaching Passover, Pesach in Hebrew, because the holiday is “about our rejoicing in freedom from enslavement but a message that we also need to free others and we’re eating this festival meal and we need to feed others.”

“The message of Passover is to me totally [that] you don’t celebrate your holiday at the expense of other people,” she said.

Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen of Beth El-Keser Israel said in an email, “Any food purchased by crossing a picket line or from scab workers is not kosher for Passover.” He said it is “a matter of well-established Jewish law.”

Elliott Croll of North Haven said the alternative to Stop & Shop has been ShopRite in West Haven, but that store has moved to Orange, and it never had as large a selection as the Amity supermarket.

“We’ve actually done most of our shopping already,” Croll said. “Typically we start four weeks before the holiday. Last week we did everything but produce and the final dairy.”

Barbara Zalesch of Westville, on the other hand, is “a last-minute kind of person so I’ve been avoiding the Passover aisle because I don’t want to get stuff yet. I need to do it systematically.”

She said she almost bought some items this week but didn’t, and now “I’m kicking myself for not getting some of the things I need and I’m not sure what I’m going to do.” She said ShopRite is a possibility and that what she needs most is matzo meal and cake meal.

The Westville Kosher Market, close to Stop & Shop at 95 Amity Road, which sells kosher meat, and Abel Caterers at 70 Bradley Road in Woodbridge also are options, Zalesch said. Abel Caterers has “prepared foods that you have to order in advance,” she said.

Zalesch said she hopes the strike “will be resolved quickly” but, in any case, she won’t cross the picket line. “I’m not going to walk past strikers so I can buy gefilte fish.”

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382