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June 23, 2005

The Red Star Bottling Company

Paul, from Silver Spring, Maryland, send in the following story about his relatives involvment with the seltzer industry.

    My ancestors were involved in the seltzer business in New York in the early-mid 20th century.

    When my great-grandfather Jacob Rascoff came to America in the 1890s, he apparently worked for a man who made seltzer in his basement. When my great-grandmother Esther came from Russia to join him a few years later, she apparently decided that they could have their own seltzer business, so that's what they did (or so the family story goes).

    Esther either purchased or founded the Red Star Bottling Company (I think she purchased it, but I am unsure). She eventually went into business with one of her sons (David "Dolly" Rascoff) and a son-in-law (David Hammer), and the company was called Hammer Soda.

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June 22, 2005

Homemade Seltzer in Israel

Naomi, from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, recently wrote the following about making seltzer at home in Israel:

    You might want to investigate the history of the "sipholux" soda makers in Israel (which unfortunately seems to have gone out of business). We used to be able to get gas refills (called balonim in hebrew) until recently. I have no idea if this company originated in Europe. I have an early model silver filigreed soda maker (intact but unusable). Most Israelis have the soda stream brand now which I believe has made its way across the ocean and is much more than 2 cents plain.

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“Soda Factory” Census Report, 1910

Jeff, from Philadelphia & Minneapolis (I’m not sure exactly how that works), sent me some really cool information about his family getting started in the seltzer business in New Jersey and the census track that shows the occupation as “Sode Factory”.

    My great grandfather Solomon Friedland worked for a landsman selling seltzer in Plainfield New Jersey for a few years right after his arrival in 1903, until he had enough to bring his family over and open his own dry goods store in Philadelphia. The man my great grandfather worked for was Julius Shrager (b 1863). My father remembers as a boy meeting Mr. Shrager. He was a large man with a beard.

    Both my great grandfather and Mr. Shrager came from the town of Vidz (Vidzy/Widze) in eastern Lithuania. Shrager was not a relative, but a very good friend from the old country.

    I have attached the page from the 1910 census showing the Julius Shrager family in Plainfield. His occupation clearly states "Sode Factory". The Shrager's had a large presence in Plainfield and you may be able to learn something from his descendents. We've lost track of them, but it should not be difficult to track some of them down.

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Working for the Southland Beverage Company

Marcia wrote me about her memories of her family working for the Southland Beverage Company in Brooklyn:

    My family was from Vilna. My Mother's three brothers and one brother-in-law worked for Southland Beverage Company in Brooklyn during the 1940s, 50s and early 60s. I believe that it was in Brownsville. The majority owner was a man named Greenstein, maybe Harry. I believe that my Uncle Willie Odinetz had a small share of the business. His brothers Charlie and Bennie worked there as salesmen as did his bother-in-law, Harry Rinestone. I remember the soda water as well as the seltzer.

    My most vivid memory is my Uncle Willie telling me not to drink the orange soda because it was "made from paint." I still can't drink it to this day.

When I wrote her back I asked, “Made from paint? What was that
about? Just teasing a little kid, or protecting you from something?” She replied:

    I think they really believed that. They were used to seltzer and what does one use to change colors but paint?

Marcia encouraged me to share her email address, Mhlcswc2 AT aol.com, because “You never know who will turn up from something like this.” Very true!

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Israel, Seltzer, and Public Fountains

They say Israel is the land of milk and honey. But I received a fascinating report from a Chava at Lehigh University, who suggests Israel is also the land of free flowing seltzer:

    In the summer of 1966, I spent a month on kibbutz Ein Tsurim, in the Shefelah (ha-kibbutz ha-dati). Seltzer was piped all over the kibbutz, so that one could get a drink of seltzer nearly as easily as a drink of water. It would be interesting to know if this was the case on other kibbutzim as well.

Interesting indeed. I knew this would be an interesting thread to track down. When I wrote to ask for more information she responded with:

    What I remember is this, that seltzer was piped to (several? many?) public sites around the kibbutz, not into people's rooms or homes. Ordinary drinking water was also available at other faucets in the same locations. Mainly, I remember a sign at one of the public seltzer fountains that read "Na lo lishtof et ha-kosot be-sodah [or: be-mei sodah]," i.e. please do not rinse the cups out with seltzer water. This was certainly not the case on all kibbutzim--but I do not know how wide-spread it was.

If anyone knows anything else about Seltzer on Israeli kibbutzim, please let me know! As I do not speak Hebrew, this is a hard one to track down. But golden, right? I wonder if Ben Katchor knows, whose graphic novel The Jews of New York features a man who dreams of piping carbonated water into Manhattan for public consumption. Did he know it had been done in Israel? I love when truth is stranger than fiction.

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Ask Barry a Question

Do you have a question for me about the book? About seltzer? About the podcast? Do you have a recommendation for the site or a story that just has to be included in the book? Then this is the place to let me know.

Just enter it as a comment and I will respond, most likely, within this section.

I LOVE getting feedback. And a book like this could not be possible without the contributions of people like you. (Did that sound like a public TV pitch, or what?)

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The Jew in the Bottling Business, Editorial, 1903

I look forward to writing more about the generous offices of Beverage World, the oldest continuous publication related to the bottling industry. Founded as the National Bottlers' Gazette at the end of the 19th century, its creator was a charismatic and effusive writer, whose editorials are often a gas to read. However, neither the content of its editorials or the magazine ever referred to anyone by religion or race, at least not in the few decades of issues I thumbed through. That is, except for this editorial, published in July, 1903, which I learned of from a former Beverage World Executive Editor, Greg Prince (to whom I will now always be in debt).

Why this was written? What does it say about Jews and the seltzer business? How can we understand it in the context of the time? All of those questions and more will be answered when I unpack this in the book. But as I will not have space to run all of it, and it is such a gem, I am delighted to make the full text available below:

THE JEW IN THE BOTTLING BUSINESS

Lest (sic) we be misunderstood, in reference to the "Jews" in the bottling business, we desire to say that we use this term advisedly, as a descriptive appelation, to distinguish a certain class of industrious and energetic men, who are finding the business of bottling beverages an attractive vocation.

There can be no mistake in the statement when we say that the Jews are learning the business if large numbers and are growing in force and influence beyond all peradventure of a doubt. Staring, usually, in a small way, they soon acquire the rudiments of the business and fast develop into clever business men. The is not to be wondered at, considering that they are natural born traders, and thier thrift to be commended. the bottling of siphon waters, because that branch offers the least resistance, naturally attracts their first attention, and because, also, many of their compatriots first started that way.

We notice, however, that there is more or less antagonism as between the American born Jew and his foreign coreligionist. This is, perhaps, only natural, and candor compels us to say that a similar feeling or sentiment exists among others classes of the human race, although, maybe, not quite so pronounced or apparent. That feeling, however, soon wears away as the "foreigner" develops American habits and ideas, much as it wears away in all classes of immigrants.

It would be difficult, and perhaps to no purpose, to take a census of the Jews in the bottling business, but suffice it to say that they number a very respectable minority and are scattered all over the country. In New York City, Brooklyn, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, they are quite numerous; so much so, in fact, that they have, in nearly all the cities mentioned, separate protective bottlers' associations. This feature of their methods we do not commend--for their is usually only room for one such an association in a given city--and yet we must acknowledge that "racial" differences has no doubt driven the Jews to seek their own company and each other's protection rather than force their rights and wants on or in a gentile association of bottlers. The mere matter of forming such bottlers' associations is a very good sign, though, of rational business methods, and in this respect the Jews are far ahead, generally speaking, of any other nationality. The proof of this lies in the fact that there are a large number of good-sized cities where no association exists, although a large number of bottlers have been doing business in such localities for many years.

There is one lamentable feature about the Jews' business methods, however, which we, and all others who are interested, feel that should not exist. We refer to the "cutting" of prices to obtain trade.It may be that the Jew thinks that he gets along on a less margin of profit--especially when he first enters the business, much like the Germans, the Irishman and some others--but he soon learns his mistake and consequently is not slow in "pegging" up his prices wherever it is possible or permissable.

In this respect and many others we commend the Jew bottler to his coreligionist in the bottlers' supply business. It is only fair to say that in whatsoever branch of the supply business the Jew merchant, trader, or manufacturer finds himself, he soon adapts himself to his environment and lives up to the best ideals of a first-class business man.

These remarks and close observation leads us to say that the Jew is no doubt in the bottling trade--"for keeps." That much is evident. It is to be hoped that he will not degenerate--rather than his evolution will be progressive, onward, upward.

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June 21, 2005

What exactly is the book all about?

This is the first entry on this blog about the book itself. Why a book about seltzer? What does it take to create such a think? Couldn't I have taken up yoga instead? All that and more to follow.

I'll tell the story in more detail in future entries, but suffice it to say that last year I wrote a brief (very brief) article about Seltzer for the Jewish Forward. It caught someone's eye last January and in February (over a very expensive lunch, at least by my standards) she offered to assist me in getting a book published.

At first I thought the idea was crazy -- interesting, but crazy. How could there be a WHOLE book about seltzer? What was there to say? And how much of what there was to say would be worth reading?

So between our first conversation (which, I hate to repeat, I look forward to detailing in a future entry) and our lunch a month later, I told none of my friends about the possibility. Instead, I'd bring up my article and then ask, "Hey, if I wrote a book about it, what would the chapters be about?" It was like a fun party game.

Each conversation went essentially the same. First, Dismay: "What's there to write about?" Then, an Extreme Burst of Creative Engagement: "You have to do a chapter about Egg Creams! And other drink recipes! And cleaning spills! And..." And finally, Obsession: "Remember that book idea you told me about last week? Well, you also have to include..."

That was when I knew I was on to something.

I had a similar experience myself, discovering one random thing about seltzer after another, just by considering all that I knew. Even a month later, it was still fun to think about. So by the time I had that lunch meeting, and I had to decide whether or not to embark on this project, and I had never written a book before, I knew I had the passion it would take. I had caught the seltzer bug.

Still, I had no idea that once I would begin my research that I would be writing about gangsters and radical ministers and Israeli air-pilots and the list goes on and on. As the world of seltzer unfolded during my first few months of research through secondary and primary texts, I was stunned to discover how rich the story actually was. And how interesting.

To begin with what IS seltzer? Ask two people and get two different answers. When was it invented? Read three different sources and, again, get three different answers. I realized the REAL answers to those questions could only be told through recounting the history of seltzer itself, from 400 b.c. to the beginnings of the twentieth century. As I view the book now, that will be the first of our four sections.

The second section, which I think of as "In the realm of living memory" is more about specific aspects of twentieth-century seltzer that can be explored though oral history. For example, what is the history of egg creams? Or of the seltzer bottling business? For these tales I don't need to read original newspapers from the 1890s. Instead, I can talk with the people who lived it.

The third section, which I think of as "The Seltzer Museum of Popular Culture," is all about seltzer and the arts, from movies, television and popular songs, to literature, poetry and vaudeville. Clowns and Allan Sherman. Lou Reed and Seinfeld. Mary Tyler Moore and the Simpsons.

The fourth section, for lack of a better concept, is everything else. Seltzer recipes. The best soda fountains in America. The most unusual things people do with seltzer (other than drink it). Things like that. You get the idea.

And while this is not a book about Jews, I want it to be a thoroughly Jewish book. Seltzer, to me, amongst other things, is one of those cultural icons that absorbed and took on the burden of Yiddish-American life. A culture in a glass of water. And I want that spirit to be infused throughout the book.

As a result, I often seek out obscure references to Jews throughout seltzer's history. While it shouldn't surprise me to find Jews EVERYWHERE, it always does, whether in sixteenth century Germany selling cows to the guards of the headwaters of Niederselters (where seltzer gets its name) to today’s seltzer manufacturers.

At the same time, for the book, it led me to create Saul. No one has read Saul yet. While I have written almost 100 pages in draft form (to prepare the book proposal and to find a voice and shape for the book) no one has yet to read a page. Which, if you knew me, is unusual. I usually spread a first draft of story to everyone without earshot. But not this time. For some reason, I am keeping it all close to the chest. Partly because, to be frank, I have no idea if Saul is working.

Saul is a character in the book who... well, I won't reveal it all yet, but let's just say he takes me through history so I can experience it first hand. I describe him in the book as reminding me of the old guy who sold me pickles from a barrel at the Roosevelt Field Mall when I was a kid. The older generation and the younger generation, together touring history. Will it work? We'll have to see. If you read the book and there's no one named Saul it in, then you'll know he got the ax.

So once I began to write the book, I was having so much fun and was so passionate about it, I decided I couldn't wait to start sharing. Sure, write a book, but can't I offer something for you to nosh on in the meantime? If you get too hungry you might leave to eat elsewhere, right? Read a book about bialys or cod. Through this blog, and the podcast, I hope to keep you entertained, to hear from you as well, and keep you around for when the main course is served.

My goal right now is to create a proposal and two or three chapters that can be shopped around to a publisher. How that will happen, and who will do the shopping, is part of the story I refer to above, to be detailed later. But for right now, after three months of challenging, yet exhilarating, research, I am well into writing my first drafts. I have written a segment about the 1910s, two about the 1930s, one about the Israeli War of Independence (yup, there's a seltzer hook), as well as a history of the word "seltzer" and a sort-of introduction to set up the book. I then plan to write a segment about Niederselters, Germany, Joseph Priestly and... and then I think I'll have enough to look through for a proposal.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks for joining me on my publishing journey.

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June 20, 2005

Your Seltzer Stories

This is the section on this site for telling YOUR own seltzer story. I don't have the market cornered on seltzer stories and I want to hear yours, no matter how big or small!

Please use the comment tool below to share your tale... .

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