Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The last Passover matzos have rolled out of a century-old bakery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side – a neighbourhood that has been dubbed the “Jewish Plymouth Rock” but is rapidly gentrifying.
The Streit’s factory is the oldest in the nation where the flatbread essential for Jewish holidays is still churned out. About 1,130,000kg of matzos were baked for April’s Passover holiday and distributed worldwide. Streit’s is now planning to shut down its nine-decade-old ovens by the year’s end and move to a 21st-century computerised plant in New York. With it, a significant chapter of Jewish Lower East side history is closing.
The bakery first opened during the First World War, serving struggling Jewish immigrants. By 1925, the business moved to Rivington Street, where the original assembly line winds through four six-storey buildings. But the 48,000 sq ft business doesn’t live off nostalgia. It’s a smartly run family business with annual sales topping $20m (£13.5m) on about 2,270,000kg of matzos sold around the country and worldwide.
The current Streit’s production line dates back to the 1930s and the baking process is strictly timed.
It may take no more than 18 minutes from the moment the flour and water are mixed to when matzos emerge from a gas-fired, tunnel-like oven. Beyond the 18 minutes, the dough rises – forbidden for this food that symbolises the biblical flight of the Jews from Egypt, so rushed they had no time to finish baking this “bread of affliction”. AP
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments