Food

WhiskyFest Caves to the Jews

By Dan Friedman October 31, 2013

When WhiskyFest announced in 2011 that it would move to a weekend format, the Forward noted that it would be abandoning traditionally-observant Jews who made up a significant proportion of the attendees.

Into the breach stepped Whisky Jewbilee — from the founders of Single Cask Nation — providing a non-Sabbath, kosher-keeping option for Jewish whisky drinkers of which The New York Times assures us there are many.

After two highly successful Jewbilees (in 2012 and 2013), WhiskyFest has decided to move to Wednesday night October 29 for its 2014 New York event. That’s two weeks after Sukkot, for those keeping track. This sensitivity to its clientele is limited to New York — Chicago WhiskyFest will be on a Friday night and San Francisco WhiskyFest will be held on Friday night, Kol Nidre.

John Hansell, editor and publisher of Whisky Advocate — the organizer of WhiskyFest — noted that the “primary reason” for the switch:

Is that we want the New York seminar day to be the best whisky event anywhere. To achieve this, we need to have substantial quantities of incredibly rare whiskies procured for an audience of several hundred whisky enthusiasts; this is extremely difficult to accomplish on an annual basis.

Apparently the world’s premier whisky event can’t manage a two-day seminar every year without the Jews.

So WhiskyFest wants the Jews back, but will the Scotch-quaffing Heebs go back to WhiskyFest? Joshua Hatton from Whisky Jewbilee thinks the jury is out.

We’ve been here for the kosher-keeping, whisky-loving, Jewish community and, while we wish WhiskyFest all the success in the world, we hope that our community will remember us and will stick with us or go to both events.

He assures the Forward that, though the 2014 date for Whisky Jewbilee is yet to be set, it is definitely going ahead. The kosher food will be there, the cigar options will expand and the opportunities for schmoozing will be greater than ever.

Dan Friedman is the former executive editor and whisky correspondent of the Forward, and is the author of a book about Tears for Fears, the ’80s emo rock band.

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