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LES Jewish bakery closes

By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer | jsilverman@am-ny.com

June 22, 2007

The last baker of Jewish soul food on the Lower East Side turned off the ovens for good Friday, after more than 90 years in business.

"The neighborhood changed and we had to sell the building, blah, blah, blah, blah," said Abe Stern, who bought Gertel's Bake Shop in 1986.

"Maybe one day we will open little shops in the city, but for now, no more store."

The buttery, hand-rolled rugelach and chocolate babka will still be available wholesale from a new baking facility in Williamsburg. But gone are the days of boisterous crowds at 53 Hester St. stocking up for the weekly Shabbat meal, or passing a lazy Sunday over cake and coffee.

In its place, a developer plans to build condominiums.

"There used to be a half million Jews living in this neighborhood," said Rabbi Barry Blatt, a lifelong resident of the Lower East Side. "It's sad to see a place like Gertel's close down, but it's not surprising."

Rumors of the closure have been circulating for years, as the neighborhood became more Chinese than Jewish, and the old customers stopped driving in from the suburbs to go shopping on Hester Street.

Chaim Braunfeld, whose father owned the bakery before Stern, recalled the old men who would come to Gertel's while their sons and grandsons were in Europe fighting the two world wars.

"Tea was five cents back then, but a cup of water was free," said Braunfeld, who now owns Schick's Bakery in Borough Park.

"So the old men would bring in their own tea bags, drop them into the free water, and then sit for hours talking about the war."