Client Feature: STREIT’S MATZOS
Orangeburg, New York
Iconic Kosher Foods brand Streit’s turns 100 this year (2025), so getting to design a commemorative box for their Passover Matzo was such a fun opportunity (and finally—-a client that my family will recognize!). I partnered with Yael Buechler of Midrash Manicures and she approached Streit’s as a fellow New Yorker and Jewess with her finger perpetually on the pulse of what’s going on in the Jewish world (I basically live in the woods these days). She’s also an excellent editor, and keeps me from veering too niche or obscure as I’m occasionally prone to do.
I started the process by going down the rabbit hole of archival photographs, vintage Streit’s advertisements, packaging and documentary footage to get a better sense of the company and its history. I’m familiar with Streit’s, but prior to this project, had no idea how long they’d been around or that they’re the only large manufacturer of matzos that is still in the U.S.!
While I was heartbroken to discover that the original Streit’s factory is no longer in operation, seeing images of it and realizing just how much of a Lower East Side cultural cornerstone it was gave me direction—the box could be a way to bring it back to life, in a way that celebrated the company’s roots and injected fun, meaning and context.
The biggest challenge of the project was finding a balance between the familiar and the original. I decided that keeping the color scheme was essential (especially the iconic pink that has been part of the box in recent memory), as was the Streit’s mark over the red.
The other thing to consider was messaging—in meetings with “the Aarons” as we called them (Aron Yagoda, great-grandson of Aron Streit, and Aaron Gross, great-great-grandson of Aron Streit), they emphasized the freshness and crispness of their matzos.
When I took this information (feeling somewhat ambivalent) to my mother-in-law, she confirmed that indeed, Streit’s is the only matzo she buys because it is crisper and more fresh than any other. This might seem anecdotal, but my mother-in-law Marci is one of the most analytical people I know. If she says it’s the freshest, that’s a g#d@!ned fact.
So emphasizing the matzo’s freshness became key, as was anchoring it in New York—-where apparently the water is A THING. Again, I had no idea, but it’s a thing.
Excited to see the special edition boxes on supermarket shelves—I know which matzo I’ll be buying this year!