The Challah Connection Featured in the Jewish Ledger

Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 5:33 PM EDT

Business sells award-winning rugelach

By Cindy Mindell

WESTPORT  Jane Moritz doesn't believe in accidents. She and her husband left Manhattan and their advertising business five years ago, and Jane bought the Westport-based Challah Connection, a small local challah-subscription company. Moritz says the move was simply a way to combine her love of being Jewish, her passion for baking challah, and her marketing background into her own business.

But it was soon to become more. Moritz's Fortune-500 clients had used “cross-selling” -- offering related products to customers who had already purchased a product.

“So I thought: If someone's getting a challah, why wouldn't they want babka or rugelach?” she says.

They did, so much so that Jane's rugelach eventually caught the attention of David Rosengarten of The Food Network. Last year, the taste-maven bestowed his coveted Best Mail-Order Holiday Dessert honor on the traditional Jewish pastry he described as “complicated and layered, but in a softer way, like a Greek galaktoboureko.” Rosengarten's own translation: “I selected them because they taste so damned good.”
In 2003, shortly after the Challah Connection went national online, Florence Fabricant of the New York Times wrote about the budding mail-order Jewish food emporium. For the next week, orders poured in, but Moritz was unprepared for the many requests for gift baskets and gift certificates.

And that's when she discovered the niche for high-quality kosher gourmet gift baskets.

“It's become a real Jewish gift business based on Jewish traditions,” she says. “We're trying to enhance people's lives and Jewish experience,” and she's surprised to find that only about half of her customers are Jewish.

Second only to Holiday orders are those placed for shiva and sympathy baskets. Many gifts are sent by non-Jewish customers.

“Non-Jews giving to Jews want to get it right,” she says, which she finds very moving. She attributes the high volume to an informative online article she wrote explaining shiva traditions, picked up by the major search engines.

“I get a lot of touching, interesting stories from customers about why they're sending gifts,” Moritz says.

“Through the business, I've learned so much about the Jewish lifecycle, and I have a much better understanding of death,” she says. “So I'm braver about talking with people and letting them know I'm thinking about them. Now I know what to say.”

On her website, Moritz posts suggestions for gift-card text, and believes that customers come to her because she helps and educates them.

“I hear from a lot of non-Jewish customers wanting to know how Jews operate,” she says. Her website is packed with information about Jewish traditions, from what to do at your first seder to how to light Shabbat candles. There's also a collection of traditional, old-world recipes, and Moritz wants to expand the section to reflect foods and traditions of Jewish communities around the world.

A native of Stamford, CT Moritz grew up in a Conservative household with an Ashkenazi father and a Sephardi mother, who is also a fabulous cook. She graduated from Bi-Cultural Day School, and finds that, thanks to the Challah Connection, she's more "Jewishly" involved now than ever. The self-described “funky traditional Jewish family” are members of Temple Shalom in Norwalk, and go all-out for Jewish holidays and Shabbat dinner.

As the business grows, Moritz engages in more tikkun olam. She's researching ways to make Challah Connection greener. She's baked challah with her youngest son's elementary-school class, and will bake with residents of a Stamford assisted-living facility. And she plans to mentor other women who are starting businesses.

“The more I spend on this business, the more I want to do good things,” she says.

To see the award-winning rugelach, pick up Jane's challah recipe, or get ideas for creative Jewish celebrations, visit www.challahconnection.com.