With new frozen latkes, Manischewitz 'continuing a tradition' dating back to its founding

(JNS)- For years, Manischewitz has sold potato latke mixes, whether vegetable, low-salt or gluten-free. This year, the 136-year-old company joins other kosher purveyors, like Golden, in offering the product.

The company's new frozen latkes will make Jewish cuisine more accessible to everyday consumers, Shani Seidman, chief marketing officer of Kayco, Manischewitz's parent company, told JNS.

"When you think about Manischewitz over the past 130 years, it has always been associated with the shelf-stable kosher aisle," Seidman said. "One of the strategies behind our rebrand was to become part of the grocery experience, the buying experience for the everyday shopper, which is not necessarily always in that one section of the supermarket."

With many consumers buying more frozen than fresh food, "now that we have a frozen product line, it gives people an opportunity to have your favorite Jewish dishes when you need them," Seidman said. "We offer convenience since you don't even have to turn on a flame. You don't have to be busy peeling, cutting and shredding potatoes. But you can still have yummy latke with no prep."

Hasia Diner, professor emerita of history, and Hebrew and Jewish studies, at New York University and director of the American Jewish history center there, told JNS that "Manischewitz has always had this great business strategy of using technology to provide manufactured products in a kosher fashion."

"They ensure kosher certification to appeal to the Jewish public, even though the foods that they sell are themselves totally American," added Diner, who is the author of the 2003 book Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration.

"By offering frozen latkes, they are continuing a tradition that goes back to their company's founding, since many people find frozen food to be more convenient and certainly don't have the time to make latkes from scratch," Diner told JNS.

JNS called several kosher food stores to ask if they are stocking the frozen Manischewitz latkes. Western Kosher, in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, confirmed that it is selling the frozen potato pancakes at $4.99 for a box of 10.

Adapting foods is an integral part of Jewish cultural history, according to the historian.

"There is no such thing as 'traditional Jewish food,' because Jewish people have always adapted the food around them, whether Jews in Yemen, Jews in Morocco or 14th-century Spanish Jews, Jews have always eaten the same foods as their neighbors just in a kosher-style," she said. "Selling a frozen latke is just a continuation of millennia-old tradition, in which Jews take advantage of technology to adapt their own foods."

Diner told JNS that it's important to remember that there weren't any potatoes in Europe until the 18th century.

"So none of our ancestors would have had potato latkes at all until fairly recently," she said. "The Maccabees did not celebrate their victory with potato latkes." (Growing up, Diner remembers her mother, who she says wasn't educated about the history of Jewish food, telling her in the 1950s that it was "so goyish" to use latke mixes.)

Seidman, of Mainischewitz's parent company, told JNS that the company offers a Jewish take on traditional holiday products.

'Part of tradition and legacy'

"We have a lot of different products that can help families enjoy the holiday season, like our dreidel-themed cookie-decorating kits," she said. "It's a big deal over December, something that crosses cultures, and now it doesn't have to just be for Christmas, Jewish families can now participate in the same activity."

Manischewitz's new frozen product joins its larger collection of Chanukah-themed items, including its potato pancake mix, chocolate gelt and a pre-baked sugar cookie kit.

The company underwent a major rebranding earlier this year, launching new packaging that it hopes will appeal to modern consumers while maintaining the brand's Jewish legacy, according to Seidman. 

"Most of the packaging, you will notice, is orange because we wanted to have a bold feel yet still have a retro color scheme that would harken back to a time when Manischewitz was very much a part of the cultural zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s," she said. "You'll also see 'Yiddishisms' on the back of the box, as we call them, which is part of a tradition and legacy that we don't want to let go of." 

Yiddish is undergoing a "renaissance," particularly in New York, according to Seidman.

"I think there are words that are just like New Yorker words now, like schlep and schvitz, which are not just for Jewish New Yorkers but are so ingrained in the culture right now," she said. "We wanted our brand to reflect that."

'About creating connections'

Jake Retzlaff, the Jewish quarterback for the Brigham Young University Cougars in Provo, Utah, is partnering with Manischewitz-the brand's first sports sponsorship in its history, it announced earlier this month.

"Retzlaff, known as the 'BY Jew' is proud of his identity and totally embraced by his teammates, which is why we felt he was the perfect person to form a partnership with," Seidman told JNS.

The Jewish quarterback noted that Manischewitz "has always been part of my life."

"I grew up with matzah with peanut butter as my favorite snack, and every Passover, my family and I made matzah pizza together," he stated. "At Chanukah time, our tradition was making potato latkes. Now at BYU, I'm able to share these traditions with my teammates."

"This partnership is about more than football," he added. "It's about creating connections and celebrating Jewish pride in ways I never expected."