Daily Podcasts Video Research

In rural America's 'matzo deserts,' Jews struggle to set their Seder tables

JL;DR SUMMARY Michal Rosenoer's experience of preparing for Passover in rural Colorado highlights a broader issue faced by Jewish communities in similar regions, known as 'matzo deserts.' A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Jewish TraditionsPassoverChabadKosher FoodLubavitcher RebbeMatzoRural Jewish CommunitiesShmurah MatzoChristian SedersMatzo Scarcity

Places mentioned

Buena Vista, Colorado, United States
"Last year, Michal Rosenoer was hosting her first Seder since shed moved to Buena Vista, a tiny town in rural Colorado with just under 3,000 residents."
Chaffee County, Colorado, United States
"Every grocery store in Chaffee County, Colorado, was out of matzo. "
Denver, Colorado, United States
"In the end, Rosenoer got some matzo from Denver, a two-hour drive away, and the Seder went great."
Billings, Montana, United States
"We ordered boxes of shmurah matzo in bulk a few months in advance from a large online distributor, with the intention of distributing it to the hundreds of Jewish homes sprinkled throughout Billings and Eastern Montana, Shkedi said."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 47707
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-03-28 05:31:14 UTC
Curated 2025-03-28 08:31:34 UTC