The last matzo
Manischewitz moves out of its Jersey City factory

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
BY VICKI HYMAN
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Matzo, despite more than three millennia of mediocre marketing (what advertising guru came up with "the bread of affliction!," anyway?), remains the go-to baked good for Jews during Passover.

It's scriptural heed to partake only of unleavened bread during the eight-day celebration, which commemorates the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, so hasty that the Israelites did not have time to let their bread rise. Though the recipe is ancient, the familiar crispy squares that we eat today date back only to 1932, when the founder of the Manischewitz kosher food empire opened a plant in Jersey City that would revolutionize matzo manufacturing. (One big change: Matzo traditionally was round.)

Indeed, the worse-for-wear 6-story building that rises above the cobblestones of Provost Street was once the very model of a modern matzo factory. But today, 75 years later, the last matzo will roll out of the 120-foot-long, hand-fired oven, parts of which date back to the factory's founding. R.A.B. Food Group, once The B. Manischewitz Group, is relocating its matzo-baking to a more efficient facility in Newark.

"Everybody agrees it's bittersweet," says CEO Jeremy Fingerman. "It was a glorious history there. It was a factory that lived well beyond the age of many factories in America."

The factory is also one of the last industrial buildings still in use in this historic warehouse district, now an artists' enclave beneath the glinting towers of Jersey City's new waterfront. It's been an unobtrusive neighbor, the only outward indication of its mandate the smell of toast that wafted through the streets.

"I walked over the there one day with my mother to see if you could actually buy matzo there," says sculptor Nancy Cohen, who lives nearby. "You couldn't. The loss is only the loss of whatever manufacturing is left in that part of Jersey City."

Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz founded his company in 1888 in Cincinnati, but realizing that his Jewish base remained in the Northeast, he opened the Jersey City plant in 1932 and eventually moved all operations there.

On the top story, workers combine flour (100,000 pounds a day) and water in huge industrial mixers. Then the dough is shunted through the floor into a machine that rolls the dough into progressively thinner sheets, scores them, and cuts them into perfect squares.

The dough is fed on metal conveyor belts through the oven. Broken pieces or matzo that isn't entirely flat are plucked from the conveyor and discarded as the crispy sheets cool on their way to the fourth floor, where they are boxed.

For half the year, the factory produces "kosher for Passover" matzo, which requires even stricter rabbinic supervision to ensure that the flatbread goes from mixer to box in less than 18 minutes, as per tradition. At the start of the Passover matzo-making season, each of the thousands of bricks in the oven are scrubbed clean.

The new plant, in an old Rokeach facility in Newark, is all on one level, and the oven itself is larger and made of stainless steel, which makes cleaning easier.

As for the taste -- well, it's going to taste like matzo. (That's the good news and the bad.) Workers even tested the water to make sure there wouldn't be a discernible difference between Newark matzo and Jersey City matzo.

Some of the equipment from the old factory will be auctioned, but the bricks, perhaps 10,000 of them, may be sold to collectors. Some historical artifacts from the plant will make its way to the new facility, including a plaque dedicated to the sons of Rabbi Manischewitz on the plant's 50th anniversary.

As for the Manischewitz property itself, which lies in the Powerhouse Arts District, the company sold it to developer Toll Brothers, which hasn't formally filed plans for the site and wouldn't comment on its future.

But neighbors say the company has been shopping plans for more high-rise towers to city officials, who okayed a similar plan on the site of a nearby tobacco warehouse. (That's where the 52-story tower by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas will rise.)

Members of the Powerhouse Arts District Neighborhood Association protested those plans, and worry that the Manischewitz property will go the same route, which they say is contrary to a redevelopment plan that envisions a low-rise art and entertainment district there, with lofts and live-work condos in the old warehouses.

Neighbors wouldn't be so sad to see the 1960s-era addition off Marin Boulevard bite the dust, but they're concerned about the original factory building.

"It doesn't take much imagination to see it's a beautiful building," says Richard Tomko, the president of the neighborhood association. "Yeah, somebody painted it yellow and boarded up a bunch of the windows, and the cornice fell apart. It doesn't look that great now, but the bones and skeleton are there."

? 2007 The Star-Ledger

Kvetching about condos

Opposition mounts against high-rise residential project at Manischewitz factory

Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer


SITE OF CONCERN ? The Manischewitz plant, located on Bay Street in Downtown Jersey City will officially close its operations in April. Development company Toll Brothers has plans to build a high-rise luxury tower on the site. Residents say they want more information.
Is it possible to for residents to fight a nationally known developer in order to make a condo building smaller?

Residents of the Powerhouse Arts District (PAD) in Downtown Jersey City are attempting to do so.

They are trying to stop nationally known building company Toll Brothers from constructing a two-tower apartment complex on the site of the soon-to-be former Manischewitz plant on Bay Street. That factory is slated to close in April.

The proposed condo project is being built as a joint effort with Hoboken-based developer Fields Development.

Talk to us, Toll Brothers!

The residents claim that Toll Brothers has put too much pressure on city planners and other city officials to allow them to build higher than what is normally allowed in the PAD.

But first, residents want to know what exactly the developers have in mind.

"All we want is to be included in the conversation," said Richard Tomko, a PAD resident and president of the Powerhouse Arts District Neighborhood Association [PADNA].

The Powerhouse Arts District is a neighborhood that includes a historic former transit powerhouse that the city would like to see converted to a shopping area like the one at Baltimore's inner harbor. The Powerhouse Arts District redevelopment plan governs development projects in the area.

They want to know

The concerned residents say they are also worried that the Toll Brothers project, along with another developer's towers that are being planned for 110 and 111 First St., will ruin the character of the neighborhood.

Tomko, along with the 100-plus members of the PADNA, have been concerned based on what they have been able to find out from various city officials and other sources.

The project consists of the two towers to be built on the Manischewitz site and adjoining property. The project would also entail taking over Provost Street, a three-block marbled cobblestone road, to create a town square plaza since Toll Brothers also owns a parking lot where they plan to build another tower.

The towers and a proposed third, are supposed to be at heights, respectively, of 43, 38, and 36 stories.

The problem, said Tomko, is all residents' speculation, which could be clarified if they knew the developers' intentions.

Toll Brothers' response

A representative for the Philadelphia-based Toll Brothers said last week that they "don't comment on properties going through planning and zoning."

Jim Caufield and his brother Robert run Fields Development, a third-generation Hoboken development company that has several projects ongoing in the PAD.

When Caufield was interviewed in November, he said plans for that project could not be discussed by him.

"There have been at least two meetings scheduled with the developers but both were cancelled at the last minute," said Tomko.

Tomko does not blame Fields Construction, whom he said has been willing in the past to present their projects to PADNA.

"Every new project that came through [the PAD] has been presented before us," said Tomko. "Fields has come before us with a proposed project called 'the Hudson' to be built on the [nearby parking] lot."

Edelstein said Robert Caufield of Fields Development has reached out to PADNA and given the dimensions of the towers. But Tomko said PADNA has not been "given a formal presentation."

Edelstein also said the PADNA has a construction committee that includes her, Simon, and five other residents with backgrounds in architecture who understand how development works.

"We are not anti-development but we are about responsible development," said Edelstein.

Arts district is changing

In the PAD, warehouse buildings are morphing into residential housing and new stores are sprouting up. The area stretches east to west from Marin to Washington boulevards and from north to south from Second to Bay streets.

The taller buildings in the district may be a result of a legal settlement last year between the city and the private developer of 110 and 111 First St.

Last year, PADNA members came out against the settlement, which allowed the owners to build two towers on the properties that could reach higher than 40 and 60 stories.

The First Street buildings were once located in the PAD, but were then placed in a special "Powerhouse Arts Residence Zone" that allows for the larger building heights.

Last week Tomko said the 110 and 111 First St. settlement created a "domino effect," opening the door for other developers to consider doing projects that are less about preserving the existing historic warehouses and more about tearing down and creating anew.

PAD resident Marc Simon said he moved to the district because there is a community feeling. But he doesn't rule out moving away if he sees too many of these towers becoming a reality.

"It was difficult enough moving from Manhattan to Jersey City, but I don't want to live amongst all these tall buildings," said Simon.

City Councilman Steven Fulop, who represents the PAD, said he will continue to work with PADNA to help them with their development concerns. Fulop also had lashed out at the approval of the 110 and 111 First St. settlement and its possible domino effect.

Ricardo Kaulessar can also be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

The last run of matzos; longtime JC biz to move to Newark in April

Ricardo Kaulessar -- Hudson Reporter -- 01/08/2007

When the Manischewitz plant on Bay Street in Jersey City did its once-a-year run of Jewish Passover matzos (an unleavened cracker-like food item) on Dec. 20, it was near the end of its operations after almost 80 years at its present location.

Even though Passover is celebrated in the spring, the plant had to churn out its special matzos early. Manischewitz, the granddaddy of Jewish kosher food products since 1888, will be moving its operations in April to recently a renovated food plant in Newark.
The R.A.B. Group, the current owner of Manischewitz, sold the property in March to the development firm Toll Brothers for more than $35 million.

Toll Brothers have plans to build a high-rise luxury tower on top of almost 60,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space.
At least 100 jobs are expected to be lost from the Manischewitz relocation.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

You haven't smelled it recently? I wondered about the toast smell for a while after I moved here and finally had a "duh" moment when I walked by it on Marin and looked at the sign. It's too bad that they are closing as it was one of the few good smells I associate with northern NJ.

Of course it's their right to sell but I will miss the smell. I used to work at a bakery in a neighborhood as bad as that part of JC was back in the day and it closed too. A big bakery was probably the best thing an urban wasteland could have back then - lots of jobs, no toxic waste, and a nice smell too.

[quote]
MrGrieves wrote:
I had no idea they were even still operating.

I had no idea they were even still operating.

article

December 31, 2006
Relocating
They Don?t Make Passover Matzo Here in Jersey City Anymore
By JENNIFER V. HUGHES
JERSEY CITY

AFTER 74 years of matzo baking at the Manischewitz plant here, it was all coming to an end, and the house rabbi, Yaakov Horowitz, was philosophical.

?The Jewish experience is one of transition,? he said as he prepared to supervise the last kosher-for-Passover run of the crackers before the operation moves to Newark in the spring. Earlier this year, the 100,000-square-foot property was bought by Toll Brothers for $34.6 million. The place where some 75 million sheets of matzo crackers have been baked each year is destined to become another condo development in the city?s gentrifying warehouse district.

?There is a great amount of sadness that the facility so many people looked to for so many years will assume a more, shall we say, mundane character,? said Rabbi Horowitz, as the run of Passover matzo began on Dec. 20. Still, Rabbi Horowitz saw the poignancy in having the final, one-day run take place during Hanukkah. ?Part of Hanukkah is about people connecting the old with the new,? he said. ?We?re thrilled to be entering a state-of-the-art facility.?

The Jersey City plant will continue making other products, which include regular matzo, matzo meal, noodles and jars of gefilte fish, until it closes. Manischewitz also licenses its name to another company for wines.

The new plant, on Avenue K in Newark, will be more efficient and twice the size of the Jersey City factory, Rabbi Horowitz said. Most of the 100 employees in Jersey City will make the move to Newark, company officials said.

Jersey City?s warehouse district was once the heart of a thriving industrial center, filled with factories and rail lines. Its industrial base declined in the 1980s, and about 10 years ago artists began moving into the area, which was designated the Powerhouse Arts District by the city in 2004. That ordinance regulated aesthetic issues, provided for artists? living and working space and mandated affordable housing.

Now, condo and retail projects are completed, in the works or planned for at least six former warehouses. They will add more than 1,000 housing units and almost 800,000 square feet of retail space, said Bob Cotter, the city?s planning director.

The fight over the most prominent artist?s enclave, 111 First Street, which involved residents and preservationists as well as the developer, landed in court; a settlement last June allowed the developer to build 40 stories tall, instead of adhering to the original building?s height. The old building has been demolished, and the design for the new building by Rem Koolhaas is scheduled for completion in mid-January.

Conceptual drawings for the six-story Manischewitz building are similar, calling for a high-rise tower similar in height to 111 First Street, about 400 housing units and 70,000 square feet of retail, said Bob Antonicello, executive director of the city?s redevelopment agency.

That was what some preservationists feared after the 111 First Street settlement.

?If you want to have anything resembling a neighborhood, you can?t have these warehouses packed next to skyscrapers,? said Joshua Parkhurst, president of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy.

A Toll Brothers spokeswoman declined to talk about plans for the site.

The neighborhood that city planners are hoping will become a new SoHo was not so trendy in the 1950s when Bob Starr began serving as the president of Manischewitz, a post he held for 41 years.

?It was horrible ? this neighborhood was one of the worst slums in the city,? Mr. Starr, who was visiting the plant, said, over the roar of the mixing machines.

The matzo meal is mixed on the plant?s sixth floor, then heads down a chute to the fifth, where it is rolled flat and moved by conveyer belt into a huge brick oven that dates to the building?s erection in 1932.

Mr. Starr said the closing of the Jersey City plant was emotional, even though he has been retired since 1992. ?I spent most of my life right here,? he said.

Quote:

I happen to like having Henderson's Lumber Mill downtown, as it provides a needed service close by for those of us who don't choose to go to Home Depot/Lowe's or it's too far away.

Lech Walesa's dad used to work at that place before he died, and there used to be photos of him with every major US politician you could name involved with Poland or looking for Polish vote

"The parents of Lech Walesa -- head of the Solidarity union, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and President of the Republic of Poland -- lived in Jersey City. His father worked at the Henderson Lumber Mills. This local lumber yard displays many photos of Lech Walesa's visit to Jersey City. In 1981, when the Polish puppet government outlawed Solidarity, union figures found sanctuary in Jersey City. "

And this article from 23 years ago about Jersey City, published in the NYT, is quite interesting:



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 20, 1983
JERSEY CITY
By MICHAEL SPECTER
JERSEY CITY has been around for a long time - long enough to acquirea reputation as a gritty manufacturing center that reached its peak i n another century. But visitors these days sometimes talk about it a s if a team of urban archeologists had just crossed the Hudson R iver and uncovered the lost city of Atlantis.

There is something distinctly historic, even anachronistic, about New Jersey's second-largest city, with its robust collection of 19thcentury housing still in fine shape and its tangle of unused railroad tracks and decaying piers acting as a reminder that it once served as a major transportation center.

But it is not really the historic flavor of its many neighborhoods, ranging from the elegant Greek-revival architecture of Hamilton Park to the classic row houses of Bergen Hill, that has suddenly turned this 15-square-mile city into a boom town where development and restoration are ubiquitous. It is housing that people can afford, only minutes from Manhattan.

''We could just never afford this space across the river,'' said Elizabeth Saffir, who with her husband, Ralph, purchased a five-story brownstone in the Van Vorst section last year. ''We looked pretty hard, but you have to sacrifice too much to remain in Manhattan.''

The Saffirs paid $110,000 for their house, and plan to spend almost that much to restore it. While bargains are not as plentiful now as they were five years ago, space in Jersey City is far less costly than in Manhattan, or even in the brownstone communities of Brooklyn that offer similar types of housing. When Hoboken - the first close-in New Jersey town to be overrun by New Yorkers looking for cheap urban housing - got too expensive, people looked to neighboring Jersey City for the next good deal.

''In the downtown area, where we concentrate, you can still buy a two-family home in one of the historic districts for less than $100,000, although it would probably need substantial renovation,'' said Toni Boyne of Boyne Realty, adding that a refurbished brownstone would cost at least $150,000. Property taxes are $119.18 for each $1,000 of assessed value.

Rental apartments vary greatly in cost, but local real-estate agents say the average two-bedroom in one of the city's better neighborhoods rents for $600 to $900 a month.

''We've always been in the right location,'' said Mayor Gerald McCann, ''but until recently there was a huge psychological barrier called the Hudson River.'' Although the river is still there, opposition to crossing it each day has eroded at about the same pace as the cost of housing in New York City has escalated.

Jersey City bills itself as a city of neighborhoods, and there is wide diversity, both of type and quality. For the most part, however, it is in the historic communities downtown where the signs of a renaissance are truly evident.

The city was first settled by the Dutch in the 1600's and some of its sections reflect that heritage, among them Paulus Hook, the city's oldest neighborhood and the site of a Revolutionary War battle, and Van Vorst, where hints of past opulence are imprinted upon the facades of many elegant townhouses. In those sections, and in Bergen Hill and Hamilton Park, homes are being restored at a rapid pace.

Apart from their grace and grandeur, these neighborhoods share several enticing qualities. The first is easy access to PATH trains, which for 30 cents take commuters to the end of the line at 33d Street and the Avenue of the Americas in about 15 minutes. The second is proximity to the waterfront, where Harbour City, a futuristic $2 billion urban-development project that will combine residential and commercial structures, is scheduled to rise over the next 15 years.

The waterfront is also the home of Libery State Park, New Jersey's most heavily used urban recreational facility. It is a wonderful place to take in the arresting vista of Manhattan or to gaze up at the nearby Statue of Liberty. Park visitors can take ferries to Liberty Island or to nearby Ellis Island.

Jersey City has the reputation of being a dangerous place to live, but the image may be worse than the reality. Last year, it ranked 17th in crimes per capita among New Jersey cities.

The incidence of crime varies widely within the city. Crime is not as serious a problem downtown, where several large corporations - most notably Colgate-Palmolive, the largest private employer in Jersey City - have many employees. Some of the less densely populated areas of the city, however, are not nearly as safe.

''Things are happening so quickly in many parts of the city that even the recent census figures don't begin to tell the whole story,'' said Arthur Hatzopolous, deputy director of the city's Department of Housing and Economic Development.

Despite the large influx of young professionals from Manhattan over the last several years, Jersey City is still basically a working-class town. Of its 223,532 residents, 57.1 percent are white, 27.7 percent are black, 6 percent Asian (mostly Filipino) and the remainder - most of them Hispanics - identified themselves in the census only as ''other.''

Among ethnic groups, there are many Hispanics, Russians and Greeks. There is also a large Polish population, and residents point with pride to the house in Hamilton Park where Lech Walesa's late father lived.

Night life in the city runs to gatherings at the local taverns, which are in abundance almost everywhere. There are some good restaurants, most notably Casa Dante, a noisy Italian place on Newark Avenue with solid food at moderate prices, and the Summit House in Journal Square, a pleasant converted Colonial farmhouse. There are also many fine ethnic specialty shops for food.

But essentially Jersey City remains a quiet place that shuts down rather early each night, and many residents seek their pleasures across the river in New York.

''Our night life is still not as active as it might be,'' Mayor McCann said, ''but the development of the waterfront will change all that.'' CITY officials are betting heavily on the waterfront project to u pgrade the quality of life. Some people even dare to hope that d owntown's 4,700-seat Stanley Theater, the second-largest theater in t he country after Radio City Music Hall, will one day be able to r eopen. The 55-year-old movie palace has been dark for several years b ecause it did not draw enough people to make it profitable.

While Jersey City may have a promising future to offer newcomers, it is not without serious problems that will be difficult to resolve. Foremost among them may be its public-school system. The strongly Roman Catholic city has traditionally relied on parochial schools to educate its children. Even today it still has almost as many Catholic as public grade schools, although the 30 public grade schools have 23,418 students and the 29 Catholic grade schools have 9,039.

The five public high schools in the city have been plagued by violence and severe budget restrictions. There are nine Catholic high schools and several other private educational institutions.

Another problem is that much of the city is still overgrown lots, rotting piers and empty rail yards, giving it an air of seediness and decay.

The city still suffers, as well, from an image problem associated largely with an aging Democratic political machine that kept working long after most of the other machinery the city depended upon for its livelihood became obsolete. The machine was finally defeated in the most recent municipal elections by Mayor McCann, a Republican who ran on a good-government platform.

People say all these problems will lessen now. The spate of new construction, the growth of some specialized trades like the film industry, and a surge in corporate investment in the city seem to suggest that they will.

For the moment, despite the strong promise of coming vitality, moving to Jersey City remains largely a gesture of hope for the future: Hope that Harbour City will work, that residential renovation will expand to communities outside the downtown core, that the city's infrastructure problems will be eliminated, that crime will decrease and that public education will improve significantly.

If all these problems continue to turn around, then Jersey City is probably an idea whose time has finally come -again. uture Hollywood-on-the-Hudson?

While Jersey City is not quite ready to challenge Hollywood as the nation's film capital, many movies and commercials are being shot there.

Last year in the city, Woody Allen filmed portions of two forthcoming movies; Sidney Lumet, the director, shot a large part of ''Daniel,'' his cinematic version of E.L. Doctorow's ''Book of Daniel''; John Sayles, who lives in Hoboken, made ''Baby It's You,'' and several other film makers did location shooting.

Why Jersey City? ''The reason they shoot here is that it's close to Manhattan talent, so it's economical and convenient,'' said Dennis Souder, Jersey City's motion-picture development coordinator. ''The labs are nearby, and they're back home at night after a full day of location shooting.''

There were 30 full-crew shooting days in Jersey City last year, which Mr. Souder said was the first year that it seriously attempted to lure film makers.

More than $1 million in direct production costs was spent in the city, which is now trying to develop the largest private film studio in New Jersey. ''We think films have a future here,'' Mr. Souder said.

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checked my map.

the manischewitz parcel is outside of the Morgan/ Grove/ Marin redevelopment zone and technically part of the PAD.

which means anything goes!

but that mysterious plan is still gonna have to go before the planning board to get approved....

isn't it?

How did I miss this?

"Matzo and Metal: A Very Classic Passover."



The B. Manischewitz Company is sponsoring an hour-long VH-1 special, which will focus on Passover and musical memories of a group of Jewish heavy metal icons.

Manischewitz makes last matzo here
Jersey City institution to leave, building to rise
Thursday, December 21, 2006
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JERSEY JOURNAL

For nearly 80 years, Jersey City played an important but often unnoticed role in Passover celebrations around the country.

But the city's contributions to the Jewish holiday is coming to an end, as yesterday the historic Manischewitz factory on Bay Street churned out its last batch of kosher-for-Passover, or Shmura, matzo. The factory will remain open until this spring, when it is slated to be sold to make way for housing.

"This is an important time for us as a company, and it's the last time we will do this in Jersey City," said Jeremy J. Fingerman, president and CEO of R.A.B. Food Group, which owns the Manischewitz brand.

The city's surging real estate market, combined with an aging facility, prompted the company to sell the plant property to Toll Brothers for roughly $35 million, said company officials.

"The real estate market became incredibly valuable, but this is also an old and glorious factory," Fingerman said.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the event is another sign of the transition of Jersey City from a industrial giant to a white-collar city.

"We are changing, and it's sad to see a company that has employed hundreds of Jersey City residents over the years close its doors," Healy said. "But we are a city that is growing, and that's a good thing."

Company officials have said some of the Jersey City factory's 100 employees will go to its Newark plant after the Jersey City factory closes in the spring. However, they haven't said how many are moving, and several employees told The Jersey Journal they're still waiting for answers as well.

The Manischewitz company built the Jersey City factory in 1932 and has continued to expand its products in the decades that followed, from matzo to chicken broth to cake icing.

The factory sits within the outer edge of the Powerhouse Arts District, the future of which as an artists' work-and-live district has been clouded by a recent court ruling that cleared the way for the demolition of 111 First St., as well as a shift from the city's administration's commitment to retain the plan's original vision.

Many observers see the fate of the Manischewitz building as a watershed moment for the future of the Powerhouse Arts District's vision, which even city officials are finding hard to describe these days.

Healy said yesterday that he has seen Toll Brothers' preliminary plans for the site, adding that they "look pretty good." Healy refused to comment on the height of the building, but noted that the preliminary plans call for a "courtyard" and some other "public space."

As for the future of the Powerhouse Arts District, Healy said "everything is still being negotiated, and it's in a state of flux. The city is looking at ways to preserve as much as they can, while the other side is looking at investment opportunities. We have to find some middle ground."

----------------------------------------------
Bakers prepare Matzo for Passover

Thursday, December 21, 2006
By TOM MEAGHER
HERALD NEWS

JERSEY CITY -- As Jews around the world prepared to celebrate the fifth night of Hanukkah Wednesday, the owners of the old Manischewitz matzo factory here were looking forward to Passover.

The factory pressed out and baked thousands of boxes of Passover Matzo Schmura, the special kosher crackers that are integral to every Passover Seder dinner.

But the Jersey City institution, still using the original massive brick ovens built when Manischewitz bought the building from the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. in 1932, will soon close.

To mark the impending end of the making of Passover matzo in Jersey City, a group of 17 rabbis led a gaggle of politicians and reporters Wednesday through the baking line, certifying that the manufacturing meets kosher standards.

The R.A.B. Food Group, owner of the Manischewitz brand and countless other kosher food products, will move its Passover matzo manufacturing to its newer, larger Newark factory, leaving behind a rapidly changing city.

"It (Jersey City) lost a lot of its manufacturing imprimatur. It has gentrified, if you will," said Richard A. Bernstein, chairman of parent company R.A.B. Holdings. "But that had nothing to do with our decision. The building was old."

Bernstein said his company had been considering selling its factory for four or five years. When an offer came to sell it for $35 million, Bernstein took the chance to move matzo-making to Newark, the first new kosher matzo bakery in the United States in more than 75 years. In the place of the Manischewitz factory, a developer plans to build a luxury residential complex just blocks from the Hudson River's banks.

R.A.B. Food Group plans to shutter the Jersey City factory for good after Passover in April, said Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Fingerman.

"The real estate just became incredibly valuable," Fingerman said. "(Here) you'll see an old and glorious factory, but one that is less efficient."

Orthodox and Hasidic rabbis Wednesday donned diaphanous white nets over their heads and beards as they inspected the flour mixing stations. As bemused workers, clad all in white, looked on, the rabbis prodded the inside of the massive mixers with flashlights. The mixers then combined water and special kosher flour, before dumping it through a chute to the ovens a floor below.

Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz, the head rabbi for Manischewitz, leads the mashgichim, the rabbinic supervisors who watch over the Passover matzo production lines each year. He escorted the group through the process Wednesday, noting that the crackers must be under constant supervision from their base ingredients of red winter wheat and water until they enter the ovens as a square of wafer-thin dough.

"A major misconception is that kosher has to do with giving a blessing for a product," Horowitz said. "Rabbinic supervision is a function of following ancient Jewish law" and guidelines to avoid fermentation.

Factory workers with wrenches scurried along the line, adjusting conveyor belt settings and responding to rabbinical directives. Then, a chain metal netting carried the dough through a massive, 90-foot-long brick oven.

On the other side, dry, browned matzos emerged, under the watchful eyes of more workers. A rabbi pointed out ones that wouldn't pass muster -- bent or folded, cracked, stuck together or unevenly baked. They were tossed in a plastic bin to the side as the satisfactory matzo descended another floor to be packaged.

The ovens, a marvel of pre-Space Age industry, ultimately sealed the factory's fate. The unwieldy behemoths require too much work to clean and prepare when Manischewitz shuts down its usual year-round matzo runs to prepare for the stringent Passover products.

"To go from daily to Passover matzo takes us just shy of a month. It's amazing. We have to shut down for four weeks," Bernstein said.

With new ovens in Newark, rabbis will be able to make the switch in just three days.

Horowitz said the transition from old to new is fitting for a factory that every winter bridges the times between Hanukkah and Passover, or Pesach.

"The spirit of Pesach and Hanukkah is very much connecting past and present and looking forward to the future," Horowitz said. In making the Passover matzo, "we are involved with the most important kosher product, bar none."

Reach Tom Meagher at 973-569-7152 or meagher@northjersey.com.

Plans for a tower at Manischewitz site seem to please

JERSEY JOURNAL -- Dec 20

Jersey City's 80-year-old Manischewitz factory will produce its last sheet of matzo today, setting the stage for the next battle for the future of the Powerhouse Arts District. The plant is closing its doors and moving all manufacturing of Manischewitz and R.A.B. food products to Newark.

Toll Brothers and Fields have bought the building and are now working behind the scenes to convince city officials and residents that their plans to go vertical at the site are kosher.

The secretive proposal will be a watershed moment for the Powerhouse Arts District. If the city concedes to the developers - and they might not have much of a choice - then the vision for the district is forever changed.

Toll Brothers has refused to discuss the project with this columnist, but a number of people who have seen preliminary plans seem to be pleased. One city official said the plan is "thinking out of the box."