The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

High-Spirited: The Willow Glen Kosher Market does a brisk business in kosher wines, says owner Daniel Keleman.

Kosher market thrives on challah, wine and kinship

Avenue store meets challenge of keeping kosher in Bay Area

By Rebecca Wallace

"Challahs are fresh?" asks an elderly gentleman in a distinguished gray hat, examining the soft loaves of braided egg bread piled on a shelf at Willow Glen Kosher Market.

"Challahs are fresh," responds market employee Stanley Nacht amiably from behind the deli counter nearby. "How are you today, Mr. Malin?" Two white ceiling fans spin above the men and the rosy array of kosher meat filling the glass case between them.

Behind Mr. Malin stands an antique refrigerator filled with kosher cheese and other foods, a fridge that has probably roosted in the same spot since the market opened in 1960. And certainly some of the customers have been coming here for that long.

"It's kind of a meeting place," says Daniel Keleman of the market he has owned for about eight years. "A nice aspect of the store is that you see people over and over."

Keleman and Nacht say they know the name of nearly every customer who walks through the Lincoln Avenue door--and many customers know each other.

A peek inside the market reveals a cornucopia of wine and food that satisfy the Jewish dietary laws of keeping kosher--gefilte fish, meats, deli sandwiches, pickles, tabouli, pasta sauce and kosher flour tortillas.

The market is gearing up for its busiest time, the spring holiday of Passover, when it does 25 percent of its business, Keleman says. Observant Jews do not eat wheat flour or leavened bread during Passover, commemorating the Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt in Biblical times, when they could not wait for their bread to rise.

The market stocks special kosher items for the holiday, such as matzo (unleavened bread) and Passover cakes from New York, including truffle layer cakes and Parisian tortes. This year the new thing is kosher frozen cookie dough.

Keeping kosher can be a challenge in the Bay Area, where supermarkets often have a sparse "Jewish foods" area with only matzo and Manischewitz grape juice, and the only kosher restaurant around is Noah's Bagels. Willow Glen Kosher Market fills this void for many, Keleman says.

The store makes home deliveries to people who are elderly or disabled or can't get to the market before it closes at 6 p.m. The market closes at 3 p.m. on Friday for the Sabbath, which begins at sundown.

"We serve the whole South Bay and sometimes deliver as far away as Daly City, San Francisco, Fremont," Keleman says. "There were 16 deliveries last night."

The market also caters for bar mitzvahs, weddings, hospitals and hotels. Travelers provide much business, partly because Israeli high-tech companies do a lot of work with Silicon Valley counterparts, Keleman says.

"Silicon Valley has lots of wandering Jews," Nacht grins.

Other customers include Muslims who find that kosher foods satisfy their dietary laws as well.

Keleman says he strives to keep prices low "so people can afford to keep kosher."

A graduate of UC-Santa Cruz, Keleman lived in Israel for several years then moved with his family to Willow Glen in 1988. They are members of Congregation Am Echad on Meridian Avenue.

"We were looking for a cohesive Jewish community, and we found it here," he says.

Am Echad and Ahavas Torah are the two Orthodox Jewish synagogues in Willow Glen, and Congregation Sinai is Conservative. Many of Am Echad's members have just become Orthodox (strictly conforming to Jewish traditions) or have just returned to Orthodox Judaism, Keleman says. Part of a growing movement, this trend is shown in the market when employees give advice to people learning how to keep kosher.

This growth contrasts with statistics cited by Keleman: There are about 32,000 Jews in San Jose, only 6,000 of whom are considered affiliated--which can mean anything from a temple membership to taking a class at a Jewish community center.

"There's not a large Orthodox presence in San Jose, and there's not a Jewish area," Keleman says. "But we have had a little Renaissance with the newly observant."

Fliers on the wall of the market advertising synagogue events flutter as Keleman and Nacht prepare for the Passover rush of customers who are, Nacht says, the best part of the job. "We have great customers," he says. "Any place Jews gather becomes a community."

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