Cheese, Yogurt and Ice Cream

‘Cheese, Yogurt and Ice Cream’

A Milchidik Sermon - AKA Dairy Sermon

By Rabbi Arnold Saltzman

Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope that you all enjoyed the end of the year festivities as well as the beginning of the New Year 2015.

This past year we had the revival and celebration of the Broadway classic, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ based on the stories of Shalom Aleichem’s ‘Tevye, The Milkman’ aka the Milchidik’ suggesting that Tevya was a mild person, not aggressive, and the father of daughter! Five daughters!

In one of the most memorable moments of musical, Tevya sings ‘If I were a rich man’, as he dances around the cows and chickens.’ The life of a dairy man, running a farm and delivering milk by a horse drawn cart was not to be envied. Yet, he is a man who dreams dreams, which help him to work through life’s problems, as he chats with God about his circumstance.

Forward several generations to modern Israel, and the book ‘My Promised Land’ by Ari Shavit, who includes some of the success stories of Israeli’s in his history and political evaluation of Israel.

Instead of Tevya, we have German Jewish immigrants to Israel, Hilda and Richard Strauss. They were married in Ulm, Germany in 1934. They listened carefully to the Nazi broadcasts and decided to leave for Switzerland, yet, ultimately they were not sure where they were headed. They knew they were no longer wanted in Germany, a land and country they had loved. They decide to go to Palestine where they and their children could be proud of being Jews.

Their experience was very difficult. They were disappointed in what Palestine had to offer them, with the conditions being harsh, the weather hot, and already at war with the Arabs in 1936. Richard had a doctorate in Economics, yet had to drive a taxi. It was nothing less that depressing. Yet, Hilda, wrote in her diary “...The days are long and full of suffering. Only the boy’s cheerful laughter keeps the soul alive.”

This is a wonderful comment in that it explains how the beauty of life even during the worst of times comforts through family and friends. It is a statement of what is really important - this child can laugh and doesn’t know yet the cruel ways of this world, and if he does, he can still rise above it.

With some money they saved they bought some land which had a small dairy farm. Practically, nothing was on this land, yet it had carts, like Tevye’s. Hilda wrote “What does the future hold? Our fate is in the hands of strangers, and we can only fulfill our duty and trust in God.”

Weeks later there were cows in cowsheds, milk, and Hilda knew then that she had to learn how to run this farm. Richard learned to milk the cows, yet there were many dairy farms, so Hilda decided to learn how to make cheese.

Like Steven Jobs in a garage, inventing the computer, or Walt Disney in a garage drawing Mickey Mouse, Hilda used her kitchen to make cheese. She experimented, reading journals, and developed her own logo - A Peacock Stamp on the Cheese wrap, as Strauss is Ostrich in the German language.

By 1938 she won the British prize for dairy products. She and Richard began to focus on Cheese and founded Strauss- Nahariya in 1939 with WWII as background going on in Europe. The German- Jewish Nahariya attracted tourists and thousands of British soldiers looking for some respite from the war. Music, art, the beeches, hotels, fine food all attracted people for short vacations. This small area of German Jewish refugees and survivors now was filled with success and life. This was a Zionist success story.

The war’s terrible news and loss of family took its toll on Richard, who became severely depressed, yet, Hilda Strauss carried her thriving business forward. She was interested and m’dak’dek, meticulous about production. After the war she changed the logo to a Water Tower.

With German reparations, the Strauss family received new capital to work with as compensation for the property that their family had lost in Ulm, Germany. Their son, Michael Strauss was sent to Switzerland to study dairy production. The German connection allowed for the partnership with giant Danone in Germany bringing in the latest production methods and markets. The Danone plant opened on the Strauss’ original plot of land in 1973.

Michael at the age of 23 believed there was no limit to the dairy. He also recognized that Israeli’s were their best resource as they were motivated, hard working, and creative. Israel has a hot climate so people love Ice Cream. Hilda knew about this already in 1950s. Michael made Hilda’s idea into a national brand. He bought his rivals in Israel and created a partnership with Unilever in the Netherlands. Strauss Ice Cream is dominant in Israel.

When life is bitter, what could be more enjoyable than something sweet? Tnuva began making yogurts and desserts. The Israeli Milky dessert had twice as much whipped cream as other similar desserts. Hilda’s kitchen became an empire of Yogurts, desserts and ice cream products.

After Hilda’s death in 1985 the company purchased Elite Chocolate and formed Strauss-Elite the largest food and beverage maker in Israel. Their most recent plant produced more than a billion cups of yogurt and desserts a year. In 2010 Strauss -Elite opened the largest Hummus producing company in the world. Where? In Virginia.

Their sales approached 2 billion dollars, with a 10 percent annual growth rate. The Strauss group is also now the fourth largest coffee company in the world, larger than Lavazza.

This is part of the story of Israel, and it is a story of the Jewish people, who persevere in a world which has irrational hostility, nevertheless, the determination of a woman like, Hilda Strauss, is one for the ages. Strauss has fourteen thousand workers in fifteen countries. One thinks back to the blessings of seeing her son laugh, which saved her, gave her the determination for a better future, even as she let go of the anger which consumed her husband.

Hilda Strauss, you are Shabbat Hamalka - you are the Angel of our Sabbath.