Pass the matzah
In Brandon, that's easier to do than ever as the Jewish populace grows and pushes for Passover essentials.
By LETITIA STEIN
Published April 22, 2005
BRANDON - The phones were ringing off the hook at Congregation Beth Shalom.
As Passover approached last spring, Jewish residents scrambled to find the ingredients for a seder. Local groceries offered none of the basics: no matzah farfel. No potato starch.
No recognition that a growing Jewish community is calling Brandon home.
"It's a challenge for people to have meaningful Jewish lives in our community," said Betsy Torop, Beth Shalom's rabbi. "Everyone sort of becomes an educator."
Such are the growing pains of Jewish community that's steadily expanding but remains a slim minority in a region dominated by Christians. For the past year, Beth Shalom has been working with grocery stores to stock Passover items. The local selection remains meager - but it doesn't take a lot of matzah to mark progress.
When Passover begins Saturday night, Brandon's Jewish families will have more opportunities to celebrate together than ever before. Seders are planned at Beth Shalom, a Reform synagogue, and the recently arrived Chabad of Brandon, which follows Orthodox customs. This year, a handful of local Jews even had the chance to make their own matzah.
A Bloomingdale dance studio is an unlikely home for a bakery. Especially a matzah bakery.
Each year, Chabad of Tampa Bay brings a matzah-making workshop to Jewish communities throughout the region. This year marked the first stop in Brandon.
On Sunday, they set up on folding tables and a "brick facade" miniature oven in Shirley's Dance Studio on Bell Shoals Road to teach children about Passover's observances.
"Know why we eat it," said Mendel Rubashkin, 25, a rabbi who started the Brandon area Chabad center from his Valrico home in August. "It's not just some piece of bread."
On Passover, Jews avoid foods made with risen, or leavened, bread. This recalls their ancestors' flight from Egypt. On the way out, no one could wait for bread to rise.
Neither could more than a dozen apprentice bakers at Brandon's model bakery. Starting with a stalk of wheat, they learned the steps: Strip the wheat, grind it, add water.
From there, matzah makers had 18 minutes to get the dough into an oven. If they waited any longer, the moist flour would start to rise.
Eighteen minutes sounded like a lot until the bakers-in-training tried to roll the sticky dough into a circle for baking. It stuck to rollers. Funny shapes emerged.
"If your matzah looks like the state of Florida, then you have to reroll," said instructor Mendy Dubrowski, 21, of Carrollwood, drawing laughs.
As they worked on their matzah, he explained why Jews eat the flatbread during the eight-day holiday, even though matzah "tastes almost as good as cardboard."
"The idea of matzah is the lesson of humility," he said, describing puffy bread as a sign of arrogance, not in keeping with the Passover story. "We started with humble roots."
Brandon claims a small percentage of the estimated 35,000 to 40,000 Jews in Hillsborough County, according to the Tampa Jewish Federation.
The statistics are not broken down by region, but the county's larger and older Jewish congregations are in south and north Tampa. About 200 people worship at Beth Israel, which has served the Jewish population in Sun City Center since 1982.
In Brandon, a Jewish temple on Bryan Road - and Chabad's workshop in a dance studio - barely register in a region teeming with megachurches.
But local Jews notice the difference a year has made.
For years, Beth Shalom was the only Jewish organization in town. It serves a diverse membership, ranging from couples to single parents and younger families. Many congregants are raising families in interfaith marriages.
Newcomers routinely check out the Friday night services at the 15-year-old congregation, which offers a religious school and clubs for adults. About 25 members have joined this year, bringing the congregation to 130 families and individuals.
"The general sort of housing boom that's going on in Brandon is bringing Jewish families as well as others," said Torop, the congregation's rabbi for a year and a half.
Beth Shalom's services are rooted in the Reform tradition, which adapts Jewish laws to fit in the modern world. As Brandon grows, however, not everyone practices Judaism this way.
"There really was no Orthodox Jewish community here," said Lisa Friedman, 44, who recently moved to FishHawk Ranch and has become involved with the fledgling Chabad.
Chabad leaders observe Jewish law strictly. For example, they only eat kosher food. (On Passover, the matzah found in local groceries isn't pure enough for them.) Unmarried men and women can't touch. The Orthodox faith also will not allow women to become rabbis. While most American Jews don't follow such strict laws, the Chabad movement reaches out to all Jews who are affiliated with synagogues. Eventually, the organization wants to build a center for Jewish life in Brandon.
For now, the organization meets in homes and offices. It hosts weekly sessions to study the Torah, the writings from which Jewish law is derived. Each holiday will see more children's events.
"It's a very happy religion," Friedman said. "They are bringing the soul of that to the Brandon area."
The matzah workshop drew from all corners. Participants included messianic Jews, who have accepted Jesus and are therefore considered Christian in the eyes of mainstream Jews. They also included Lisa Saleh, a Long Island transplant who is married to a Muslim.
Saleh, 41, was seeking to share the traditions of her childhood with her 6-year-old daughter, Brianna.
"You don't want the kids to forget where they came from," Saleh said.
Brianna ducked behind her mother when the time came for volunteers to mix the dough. It took her longer than 18 minutes to get the shape of her matzah right. No matter. When her round matzah came out of the oven, she didn't want to wait until Passover to try it.
"I'll eat it today," she said.
Letitia Stein can be reached at 661-2443 or lstein@sptimes.com
LEARN MOREChabad of Brandon events are posted at www.chabadbrandon.org Rabbi Mendel Rubashkin can be reached at 657-9393. Congregation Beth Shalom is at 706 Bryan Road in Brandon. Learn about the congregation at www.bethshalom-brandon.org or 681-6547. Beth Israel is at 1115 Del Webb Blvd. East in Sun City Center. For more information, contact president Delyse Axinn at 633-2548 or visit the congregation's Web site at www.jcscc.org
Each organization is planning Passover seders. They also report that a decent selection of Passover products are available at the Publix on Lithia Pinecrest Road.