Reisman’s Bakery Founder Passes

By KosherToday & COLlive

Ben Reisman, a survivor of Auschwitz, who sensed an opportunity to use his skills as a baker to launch one of the largest wholesale bakeries in the country, passed away last week at the age of 92.

An affable gentleman with a perpetual smile, Ben was well liked in the industry and respected for his hard work and ethical business practices.

Born in Hungary, he survived the war and first settled in Buffalo, NY. It was there that he first encountered Chabad, leaving on him a deep and lasting sense of appreciation to the movement.

“My grandfather came to America after the Second World War and got a visa to go to Buffalo,” said his grandson, Shia Friedman. “He got married there and sent his children to the Chabad Cheder there.”

In 1962, Berel Reisman and his brother Abe Reisman, who predeceased him by a dozen years, founded a small bakery on Avenue O and West 7th Street in Brooklyn.

The Reismans soon realized the potential of becoming a wholesale bakery and actually began selling retail stores out of the back of a station wagon. One of their early customers was Waldbaum’s who in the ‘60’s was indeed the leading supermarket for the kosher consumer.

The business grew tremendously in the last quarter century, particularly when the family’s second generation led by daughter Esther entered the business. She was later joined by her son Shia Friedman who continued the expansion of the business.

Although still at the same location, the bakery expanded into an area of 3 stores with additional space on three levels.

“My grandfather instilled in us the importance to help everyone and to do it with a smile,” says Friedman, Director of Sales and Marketing at Reisman’s. “He always had a kind word and said that you must treat everyone like you want to be treated.”

Friedman added that his grandfather “always went out of his way to pay back and show hakaras hatov. He has tremendous gratitude to Chabad for what they do and instructed us that Chabad should get special treatment.”

The Reisman’s brand is sold throughout the country and even internationally in such places as several countries in Europe, Mexico, South Africa, and Canada.