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By LANE FILLER lfiller@leader.net
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 Page: 1C
When Moe Blatt locked up his kosher butcher shop Monday night it marked the
end of an era. Blatt’s Butcher Block was the last business of its kind within
120 miles. Today, Blatt will auction off most of his equipment.
“The community never really supported it,” Blatt said of his Prescott
Avenue store, which he operated in Scranton for 12 years. “At one time, there
were 16 kosher butchers in Scranton. Tomorrow, there will be none.”
Blatt isn’t going out of business, just out of the retail business. He will
continue to sell kosher meat in large quantities to colleges and nursing homes
that maintain kosher kitchens.
He cited a lack of customer interest, aggravation and long hours as reasons
for the move. Said wife Harlean, “It’s very upsetting. All of this hard work
building it up, and I think 70 percent of the Jewish community never even came
in to give us a try.”
“My own shul (synagogue) buys their meat from New York,” Blatt said.
“They think if it’s from New York it must be better, but it wasn’t.”
The lack of business is even more cutting to the Blatts because they are
observant Jews who pray at Machzikeh Hadas Synagogue. In many cases it was
their friends and fellow congregants who didn’t frequent the store.
“We could walk into Price Chopper, and it was like we had the plague,”
Moe Blatt said. “People would try to hide from us so we wouldn’t see what
they were buying.”
The Blatts’ store specialized in lamb, beef, chicken and veal but also had
a wide variety of packaged goods common in the Jewish kitchen. In addition,
they had seating and a kitchen to serve kosher meals on the premises.
“It takes something out of the community as a whole,” said Rabbi Meir
Rosenberg of Ohav Zedek Synagogue in Wilkes-Barre. “They provided a service
that my (orthodox) congregants used, and they will be sorely missed.”