Hipsid With Rabbi Simcha

You never know when something many Jews may associate with old-fashioned Jewish fare, like herring and crackers, will somehow turn high-end and hipster. One millennial, barely out of his teens, is putting herring out there for all the internet to see. And he’s got a heck of a story to tell. It all started in late 2014, when Queens, NY-teen Naftali Engel was in Israel for post-high school gap-year study. He spent some Shabbats away from his Judean Hills yeshivah with his brother who lives in Safed, the holy city famous for its spiritually creative enclaves. One Shabbat, Engel tasted a particularly delicious homemade herring, and, perhaps nonchalantly, asked the maker for his recipe. The answer he got was not quite traditional.