BOSTON — Six weeks after a fire shuttered Boston’s main kosher supermarket, The Butcherie is now operating on a limited basis from a nearby Brookline location.

Selectmen in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, voted last week to give The Butcherie’s owners emergency permission to operate temporarily from the former Rubin’s Deli through the end of September. Rubin’s, the city’s only kosher delicatessen, closed on Aug. 5 after 90 years in business, surprising the area’s Jewish community and others throughout greater Boston.

The Butcherie’s owners, who originally hoped repairs would be complete within one month of the fire, now expect to reopen in the store’s original location by Sept. 6, nearly a month before the start of the High Holidays. 

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Since the two-alarm fire forced the store to close on July 12, a limited number of The Butcherie’s kosher products were available at two kosher businesses a few doors down from the grocery.

No one was injured in the blaze, which was quickly extinguished. The fire caused between $400,000 and $500,000 in damages — mostly from smoke contamination of perishable items

On The Butcherie’s Facebook page, owners Josh, Gili and Walter Gelerman acknowledged the community’s support.

“Many thanks to Cafe Eilat and [Catering By] Andrew’s for opening your doors to us and helping in this trying moments and a world of gratitude to our dear customers for supporting us as well,” they wrote.

The Butcherie has operated since 1972.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount