The September fire at the Gabila’s Knishes factory on Long Island has lead to a shortage of epic proportions and millions of Jews are left wondering what kind of treats we’re supposed to eat on Thanksgivukkah.
“Our customers ... are calling us saying they are literally searching supermarkets and stores and they’re all asking when we’ll be back,” Stacey Ziskin Gabay, who is one of the owners of the 92-year-old bakery, told The Associated Press.
The knish shortage is expected to end just before Thanksgiving, which is also the same day as the first night of Hanukkah, a real once-in-a-lifetime moment. (Seriously, as the Atlantic Wire notes, it hasn’t happened since 1888.) It is expected that the day - now known as Thanksgivukkah - would help out the business, which sells 15 million knishes each year.
A fire on Sept. 24 damaged the plant, which also produces matzoh balls, latkas and blintzes, sells its knishes around the country. The AP spoke with several New Yorkers who were heartbroken by the knishes shortage.
“I usually get four to take home,” Forrest Gurl of Brooklyn said. “Their crunchiness, their hard corners, the mustard and sauerkraut you put on them. You can’t beat a knish.”
“It brings you back to your childhood and they’re just so delicious,” Pastrami King owner Joe Yamali told the AP. “Gabila is square and fried. You bite into it and the potato oozes out. It’s very good.”
If Gabila’s can’t meet the opportunity for a Thanksgivukkah knishes boom this time, the company may never get a chance at it again. According to an American Jewish physicist who spoke to LancasterOnline, this may not happen again for another 70,000 years. If you’re wondering about other ways to celebrate, you can check out the holiday’s Facebook page.