Kosher Pizza a Delicacy for Delaware Faithful

It used to be that if Jody Grinberg’s family wanted pizza, they had to schlep to Jersey and make a day of it.

The North Wilmington mom keeps a kosher home, abiding by a number of Jewish dietary laws that govern how foods are prepared and consumed.

Sadly, for the Grinbergs and other observant Jews, there is not one kosher restaurant in all of Delaware.

“If my kids are desperate, they make (pizza) out of tortillas,” she says.

To fill the void, in August the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement in Delaware began selling “Heavenly” kosher pizzas to raise funds for its Hebrew school.

The Sunday sale, held from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life on Silverside Road has attracted Jews and non-Jews alike. Some pick up slices before the Eagles game. Others scoop up their kids after Hebrew school and stay for the pizza, popcorn, music and conversation.

Chabad offers free delivery with a minimum order of two pizzas, but customers typically prefer sit-down or pick-up.

Individual cheese slices cost $2.50. Whole 18-inch pies are $16. There are also meal deals with snacks and drinks. Families often take home pies to freeze and eat the rest of the week, according to Chabad Rabbi Motti Flikshtein.

Chabad imports the frozen pies from J Two Pizza, a kosher pizzeria in Lakewood, N.J. A male volunteer, wearing ritual fringes called tzitzit, heats the pizzas in a small oven in the corner of Chabad’s kitchen.

Meat and dairy can’t be mixed, according to kosher laws. Since the center operates a meat kitchen, all the surfaces and utensils must be covered in plastic wrap while the pizzas are baking. Even the heat from the pie can’t reach the counter.

As many as 40 people attend the weekly sale, held in Chabad’s makeshift pizza parlor next to the kitchen with red-and-white checked tablecloths and oregano dispensers. During the Jewish fall festival called Sukkot, the pizza feast moved outdoors to a hut called a sukkah.

Chabad leaders are not sure if the operation has turned a profit. Startup costs were high, since the group had to purchase all new utensils, plates and serving pieces. Currently, plain cheese New York-style pizza is the only option, but kosher toppings could be added in the future.

Sale proceeds help provide scholarships to needy children who want to attend Chabad’s JKidz weekly Hebrew school. Enrolling more than 20 children, the school incorporates drama, songs, games, crafts and a color-coded karate-style system to learn the Hebrew alphabet. No previous Hebrew education is needed.

The 26-year-old Chabad chapter has about 150 families who regularly attend events, says Flikshtein, but membership is not required.

Last month, the center finished renovating its 2,500-square-foot basement to house four new classrooms for the Hebrew school.

Chava Louza of Newark attended a recent pizza sale with her two boys, ages 8 and 10.

“We eat almost everything at home,” noted Louza, who keeps kosher.

Louza said she used to buy frozen kosher pizzas from the ShopRite at Brandywine Hundred, but the store abruptly stopped carrying them during the Jewish holiday of Passover last March.

Discontinuing the product was “an oversight” as the store changed its stock during the holiday, said Dan Tanzer, spokesman for the Kenny Family ShopRite Supermarkets. He promised the frozen pizzas would be back on shelves next week. The Brandywine Hundred location off Concord Pike also operates the only supervised kosher bakery and deli in the state.

It is estimated there are more than 12 million kosher consumers in the U.S. New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are among the states with the highest proportion of Jewish people. Delaware’s Jewish community is about 15,000.

Recently, Grinberg, along with her mother, Linda Simon, opened a small baking business called The Chosen Bagel in North Wilmington. The duo offer homemade bagels, challah, cinnamon rolls and biscotti. Adding pizza would be “just too much,” she says.

In the meantime, Chabad leaders hope the pizza sale will encourage the broader community to learn more about the movement.

But be sure to pace yourself with the carbs, advises Chabad Rabbi Chuni Vogel.

“Just because it’s kosher,” he says, “doesn’t mean it’s fewer calories.”