Selling Brooklyn Bagels To An Indian Chief
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Liza Schoenfein February 10, 2018
The Brooklyn Bagel Bakery was founded in Los Angeles in 1953 by Brooklyn transplant Seymour Friedman, whose son, Richard, took over the business in 1981, and ran the bakery until his retirement in 2015.
The ad above illustrates the bakery’s strategy, early in its history, of attempting to appeal to non-Jewish consumers. Today it hangs on the office wall of Friedman’s grandson, Jason Turbow, author of “Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s,” released last year by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Turbow points out that the majority of the Brooklyn Bagel’s signage did not involve Native Americans.
Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @LifeDeathDinner
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.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
