Is Yonah Schimmel Knishery Closing?

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Photograph by Shawn Hote/Flickr.
I don’t deal in rumors, but I also can’t ignore the deafening chatter.
Bowery Boogie, a terrific blog about New York’s Lower East Side, has reported that 115-year-old East Houston eatery, Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, may be about to lose its lease.
“Apparently word on the street is that the landlord is trying to force ‘em out with an all-too-familiar rent hike,” Marguerite Preston reported on the blog.
Calls to the knishery by the Forward were not answered (perhaps due to the impending blizzard, which has New Yorkers fleeing home from work more or less en masse).
As more information becomes available, I’ll be sure to offer updates. Meanwhile, what we do know is that if this landmark kosher establishment were to close, it would be another great blow to the ever changing landscape of the Lower East Side.
Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @LifeDeathDinner. Her personal blog is Life, Death & Dinner.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chief