The Milwaukee bagel mystery

  In 1996, the year I moved to Wisconsin, there were about 28,500 Jews living in Wisconsin, slightly more than half a percent of the population. Since the very first day Jews came to Wisconsin in the mid 1800s, the majority of them have lived in Milwaukee. Today about 25,800 Jews live in Milwaukee. According to the always reliable Internet searches {and my friends/ connections in Milwaukee} - a significant chunk of Milwaukee Jewish folks live in Shorewood Hills and Whitefish Bay, inner ring suburbs of Milwaukee. Which brings me to the bagel mystery. Why are the good bagel stores, the ones that make the 'best of' lists in downtown Milwaukee and not in Shorewood or Whitefish Bay? If anyone reading this has a theory or can prove me wrong - please get in touch.

Jenny Pressman and I are driving to Milwaukee this Saturday to taste some bagels. Ruby's Bagels and Allie Boys Bagels in the city proper. We will also travel to Whitefish Bay to find out why people are eating chain store bagels. We will be meeting with Adam Carr, a Milwaukee Public Historian to get some history. But first I did my own history digging with the Milwaukee Jewish Museum and the Wisconsin Historical Society and found some fun Milwaukee bagel baker history. 

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"SOME BAKER UNION HISTORY: Ever since I learned that the Bagel Baker Union in NYC went on strike in the 1950s, creating a "bagel famine," I have been curious about bagel labor history. I figured with Milwaukee being such a union town there had to be some bagel focused labor struggle. Thanks to the Milwaukee Jewish Museum archives I learned that while there didn't seem to be a Bagel Baker Union there was a Jewish Bakers' Union and they also employed some aggressive tactics. In 1932 a judge got involved to stop the union from physically assaulting the employees and customers of the bakeries where they were picketing.  ​

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A BIT MORE UNION HISTORY:  In 1941 the Milwaukee Jewish Bakers Union goes on strike. While the impact of this 1941 strike couldn't rival NYC's "bagel famine" when the weekly demand of 1.2 million bagels couldn't be met,  according to the Milwaukee Sentinel the bagel "shortage" was felt. The  Jewish Bakers Union 52 strike meant that 10 Jewish Milwaukee bakeries didn't have bagels, rye bread or other essentials.   ​

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NY-STYLE BAGELS COME TO MILWAUKEE:
​New York Appetizing Bagels and Bailys opened in the Bay Shore Shopping Center in 1971.  As the name makes clear they are intentionally bringing New York-style bagels to Milwaukee. And the owners, Alan and Howard Krassner, can trace their bagel roots back to NYC's Bagel Baker Union 338.  When Jenny and I visited New York Bagel & Bialy in Lincolnwood, we learned from Lily Cohen (the wife of one of the founders who had been in Union 338 more than half a century ago) that the sons of another union member had opened a bagel shop in Milwaukee. Alan and Howard were those sons that grew up bageling alongside their dad. A 1973 article reports the very important facts that they sold sturgeon and ten different kinds of knishes.  By 1977 the ownership changed and the shop was run by Dave and Sarah Goldberg and they both provided some perfect bagel shop quotes. Dave described that they bake bagels four times a day in the oven so the bagels are always fresh...as they should be. Stealing my heart Dave said in the afternoon, "Why should I give you bagels baked at 10:30?"  Sarah speaks for all the Jewish women I know in her belief that chicken soup is “kosher penicillin, the cure for all aliments." When the bagel shop first opened it had a 95% Jewish clientele, but by 1977 the number dropped to about 40%. Does this mean that the rest of Milwaukee realized how good a good bagel is or does this mean that the Jews left for the suburbs by the late 1970s? 

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MILWAUKEE'S BAGEL BOOM:
One of the many articles from the 1990s about Milwaukee bagels declared that bagels are no longer “the exclusive province of Jewish bagel bakers.” For example, Richard Lepping, and Irish Catholic from Madison opened Brueggers in Whitefish Bay.  My favorite theme that runs through these 1990s bagel articles is the idea that bagels are a good healthy choice compared to donuts and that is why they are growing in popularity.  If you can compare a bagel (which is most definitely not a dessert) to a donut then you can compare anything to a donut. From now on I will judge every ill advised food choice I make to eating a deep fried donut and feel virtuous.

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BACK TO THE BAGEL MYSTERIES:
As far as I can tell all of the Jewish owned bagel shops from the 1970s (and at least one from the 1990s) are gone. What happened to them? At one point in Milwaukee's bagel history the Jewish Bakers Union had a lot to say about bagels.

For the much reported “bagel business is booming in Milwaukee” in the 1990s - where did they all go? And most perplexing--if  a large percentage of Milwaukee Jews live in Shorewood and Whitefish Bay--why are there no non-chain bagel shops there? This just feeds my NY judgey attitude (which didn't need any extra leavening) that Midwestern Jews just don't know from a good bagel. So Jenny and I are heading to Milwaukee this weekend, to eat a lot of bagels and ask a lot of questions. I will report back with my findings.