Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

4 Jewish Fun Facts For Pretzel Day

Written while noshing on pretzels at Forward HQ. Here are some interesting facts to impress your Jewish family and friends on #nationalpretzelday.

1) Kim Oster-Holstein of Kim and Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels is one BAF (Bad Ass Female). She’s the founder of Kim and Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels and CEO/CIO “Chief Inspiration Officer” of Crave Bar, a local food truck turned business in Chicago selling droolworthy ice cream pretzel bars. She was also on the Jewish Women International (JWI)’s Women to Watch in 2010. You can follow her on instagram @pretzelmom.

2) Pretzels are very popular in Israel and are actually called “ beygale” in Hebrew. Confusing, I know. Challah and pretzels, two of the greatest carbs out there, are better together. Try your hand at baking a challah pretzel, the hybrid every Jew needs to try.

3) This photo was taken in 1936 at City Hall in New York City, not too far from the Forward office. Pretzels are still a common street food, but at least vendors no longer have to tote them around in wicker baskets.

4) Want to watch a on-theme movie? Ilan Heitner wrote and directed “Wisdom of the Pretzel”(Hebrew title: Hochmat HaBeygale), based on his best-selling novel. The movie is a romantic comedy about young people in Tel Aviv, their aspirations, relationships, and difficult choices they make and regrets with which they must live.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.