(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring the Bexley Kosher Market, appeared in Bexley News on March 12, 2008)  4/20/08

Market's owner plans to shut door

By SARA JOHNSON

A Bexley man who started out with the mission of never letting himself or his family go hungry after his experiences during the 1940s is ending his career as the owner of the Bexley Kosher Market.

After more than 20 years, Irv Szames, 72, will close the doors to the only remaining kosher market in Columbus on March 21. A stroke suffered in 2005 left Szames' left side paralyzed, making it more difficult to manage a business. He decided to sell the Bexley Kosher Market, 3012 E. Broad St., which has served the community since its opening in 1987.

From 1942-45, Szames and 12 other family members hid in the woods of Poland during the fighting of World War II. Eating what they could find, he remembers one time when he and his sister had to share a single potato for four days, he said.

"When I came here after the war, I promised myself that I'll never go hungry or let my family go hungry, so my first job was in a food store," Szames said. "I kept my promise. None of my kids were ever hungry."

While his family moved on to Columbus in 1947, he stayed back to join other children in a mission to go to Palestine, or the area that is now known as Israel. He was 14 years old at the time. The ship he was on, the Exodus, was overtaken, and nearly 5,000 passengers were sent to Germany.

Moving to Columbus in 1949, he went on to work for Martin's Food from 1949-87. He then opened up the Bexley Kosher Market.

"This has been my life, this store. I love to work. I was very fortunate I had worked all my life in America in something that I enjoyed every day. I use to look forward to coming to work," he said.

Barry Cohen of Pickerington has driven to the kosher market because it is the only kosher store he has known of since moving to the area a couple years ago, he said. He often visited to the store to get the necessary materials for Passover, he said.

"It's sad. I don't shop here a lot, but I'm Jewish and when I need Jewish food, this is the only place I know to come," Cohen said. "Hopefully someone else will come along."

Shoppers like Cohen will have another option after Kroger, 3675 E. Broad St., opens a Kosher market April 16, offering a variety of Kosher dry good and dairy products and a full-service Kosher deli with packaged and fresh-cut meat. A full-time mashgiach will oversee the production of Kosher foods to ensure they meet rules and standards.

"We hope to carry on the tradition that Irv has there, and to fulfill the needs of the Kosher community," said Dale Hollandsworth, an Integrated Communications manager representing the Kroger Co. Columbus Division.

Szames said he appreciated the business from his customers, and will miss talking to and serving them.

He will also miss his loyal employees, who, on average, worked at his market for 18 years. He has 13 employees.

"I enjoyed my customers and I enjoyed my employees, so it's been good to me," Szames said of his work.

Szames' Kosher market has been a mainstay of the Jewish Columbus community for a long time, said Rabbi Howard Zack of Congregation Torat Emet in Bexley. Hopefully Kroger will help fill the gap, he said.

"For the Jewish community, he was the corner market where you go every week, maybe even a couple times a week. You develop relationships with customers. You know about the family, and you know about the ups and downs. It's that kind of relationship, and it was very personal," Zack said.

Currently, the store is offering lower prices to customers as closing day approaches.

"It doesn't hit you until you start clearing out. I'm very sad," Szames said. "This was my baby ... to me it was not work, it was a calling. I never considered it going to work, but I considered it going to play. To me, this was like going to visit friends, every day."

"I never considered it going to work, but I considered it going to play."

--Irv Szames

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