Rabbi Levi Raskin, left, and Safeway store manager Mike Tornell get ready for “The Great Kosher Chocolate Factory,” to take place this Sunday in Rockville, Md.

‘The Great Kosher Chocolate Factory’: A Sweet Partnership at Safeway

Joseph Sabag and his family are getting ready for a chocolate-covered Sunday.

The resident of Aspen Hill, Md., is headed to the local Safeway supermarket with his wife, Rebecca, and sons Judah, 8, and Izak, 3, for “The Great Kosher Chocolate Factory”—a workshop that teaches participants about the traditions of kashrut while they make and eat chocolate. The event is set to raise awareness about the store’s increasing kosher options, and to bring families together for a tasty and educational experience.

Participants will mold dairy-free and soy-free dark chocolates in the shape of kosher animals, Kiddush cups, Kiddush bottles, Stars of David, challahs, menorahs and more. They will also get to learn about making chocolate from scratch—from roasting and grinding the cacao beans to winnowing the cacao shell pieces.

Rabbi Levi Raskin, director of JCrafts—a mobile project of Chabad-Lubavitch of Maryland launched in 2012 that offers experiential workshops for youth—has been running the kosher-chocolate demo in various educational settings since early this summer. He cheerfully describes that it’s geared for ages 3 to 103 (though there is, of course, some wiggle room for those under or over these parameters).

The chocolate used is of the dark variety, both dairy-free and soy-free.

Raskin, who serves as co-director of Chabad of Aspen Hill with his wife, Fraida, says the timing for the program couldn’t be better.

40 Years Since Kosher Campaign Launched

This year, he explains, marks 40 years since the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—launched a worldwide kosher campaign to create awareness and promote observance of the kosher dietary laws. So, in effect, “this is a huge way of doing just that—creating awareness about eating kosher and encouraging its practice,” states Raskin.

As for the upcoming weekend program, the response has been great, according to Raskin: “The RSVPs are pouring in, and excitement is in the air.”

“We are preparing for up to 100 participants,” he says, adding that he hopes they leave with an enthusiasm towards kosher food, and the knowledge that it’s a lot more accessible than people think.

“Sometimes, it seems very difficult to pursue things like shopping kosher, but what the rabbi is trying to do is make it fun,” says Sabag. “The opportunity to turn Jewish observance into something meaningful—that’s why we go to all his programs. It’s very important, especially for the children.”

Meanwhile, having a supermarket nearby that’s boosting its kosher selection—in the form of packaged meats, poultry, cheeses and bread, as the Safeway in Aspen Hill is doing—is very exciting, notes Sabag. Instead of driving 20 minutes each way to nearby Silver Spring for kosher groceries (and fighting that area’s heavy traffic), he’ll now be able to go right down the street.

“It’s going to make our lives much more convenient in that regard,” he says, “where it’s not such a struggle to go out and do kosher-food shopping.”

A Change in Thinking

Rabbi Nochum Light, co-director of Chabad of Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Md., helped make the connection that brought Chabad and Safeway together. The time was right; about six months ago, some 25 Chabad rabbis from Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., sat down with Safeway management to connect the store more strongly with the sizeable Jewish community in the Greater Washington area. Safeway has also been very generous to the local Jewish community by donating food items before holidays and special events.

“It’s a great way to promote kosher, and that’s what we’re here for—making Judaism accessible in a fun and joyful way,” he says. “Even if one person changes his or her thinking about eating kosher and says, ‘I’m going to try it out once in a while,’ that’s just wonderful.”

Brad Cohen, of Safeway’s upper management, studies with Light and has been involved with the Chabad for a handful of years, and he helped make the new kosher-sales program for the store’s eastern division possible.

The chocolate event—beyond just being a family-friendly demonstration at a local supermarket—is part of establishing the fact that there is indeed a demand for more kosher products. As far as Sabag and his family are concerned, “it’s going to end up having us shop at this supermarket on a much more frequent basis.”

Annapolis resident Ron Elfenbein recounts that the JCrafts chocolate show he previously attended at the Anne Arundel Chabad welcomed a wide range of Jewish people from all backgrounds. He went with his kids: Alex, 8; Haley, 6; and Sophia, 4.

“I think the most important thing to me is that they had a good time, and that they associate Judaism and the practice of Judaism with fun and with excitement,” he says of the event and what he wanted his children to come away with. “Everybody was there and had a really good time.”

“The Great Kosher Chocolate Factory” will take place on Sunday, Aug. 23, at 11:30 a.m., at the Safeway supermarket at the corner of Bauer Drive and Norbeck Road in Rockville, Md. For more information send an email here or check out “The Great Kosher Chocolate Factory” here.

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4 Comments

  • Top guy!

    Good job! Rabbi Raskin
    May you go from strength to strength in your amazing work out here!
    Your hard work and efforts are exemplary, and always with a smile and good word for everyone!
    We’re proud to belong to your community!
    One of your ardent followers

  • M&Z

    Fun and delicious!
    Amazing work Rabbi Levi Raskin!!!!
    Bringing Jews closer to yiddishkeit and creating a warm energy towards frumkeit! Yasher koach!