science

Streit's

Streit's is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Streit's rather than just read about it. In short: Aron Streit, Inc. (sold under the name Streit's) is a kosher food company founded in Manhattan, New York City, best known for its matzo.

Key takeaways

Streit's belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Streit's to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Streit's from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Aron Streit, Inc. (sold under the name Streit's) is a kosher food company founded in Manhattan, New York City, best known for its matzo. It is the only family-owned and operated matzo company in the United States, and distributes matzo in select international markets. Streit's and its major competitor, New Jersey–based Manischewitz, together hold about 40 percent of the US matzo market. The factory follows strict kosher laws. Only shomer Shabbat (Sabbath-observing) Jews are allowed to touch the dough. However, once the dough is baked, people of any religion and non-shomer Shabbat Jews are allowed to touch the matzo. The entire process of making the matzo is under Rabbinic supervision. During Passover, Jews are not allowed to eat leavened bread, so the dough must be baked within 18 minutes before it has had time to rise. If the dough sits for longer than this, it is considered chametz – no longer kosher for Passover – and must be discarded.

History The company was founded in 1916 by Aron Streit, a Jewish immigrant from Austria who had made matzo there in the late 1800s. Its first factory was on Pitt Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There, Streit and his business associate Rabbi Weinberger made each piece of matzo by hand. In 1925, with the growing number of Jewish immigrants congregating on the Lower East Side, Streit, along with his two sons, Jack and Irving, moved his business to nearby 150 Rivington Street. Soon thereafter they bought the adjacent buildings, where the company operated for 90 years, before moving in 2015.

Lower East Side factory Streit's 47,000-square-foot (4,400 m2) matzo factory, along with Katz's Delicatessen and Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery, was a surviving piece of the Lower East Side's Jewish heritage. At the turn of the 20th century, Jews, along with other European immigrants, were crammed into the many unsanitary tenements of the Lower East Side. In 1915 they made up 60 percent of the Lower East Side population. Because of the large Jewish presence, Jewish-centric businesses like Streit's opened and flourished. However, because of the poor living conditions, as soon as they financially could, many Jewish families moved out of the tenements to other areas in New York City, namely uptown and Brooklyn, slowly making Streit's a relic of the past. Streit's Lower East Side matzo factory usually baked about 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg) of matzo each day. In preparation for Passover the factory ran 20 hours a day, testing its 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) per day capacity.

New factory Since the 1980s the Lower East Side has experienced hyper-gentrification. The neighborhood is now a burgeoning area with rising rents. The Streit family even considered at one point opening a café or bar that serves matzo, to go with the Lower East Side's new nightlife scene. On December 20, 2007, it was announced that the factory had been listed for sale for $25 million. The Streit's family cited noise complaints, congested streets, and their desire to modernize its equipment as the reasons for their eventual move. Its realtor, Massey Knakel Realty Services, commented "the building will most likely be torn down and converted into luxury condominiums." Midtown East-based Cogswell Realty bought the factory for $30.75 million in 2015. Cogswell closed on the properties, which together span roughly 50,000 square feet, in May 2015. Cogswell Lee Development and Gluck+, which is also the project's architect, are developing the condo building, and plan to festoon the lobby with Streit's memorabilia The new Streit's factory at 171 Route 303, Orangeburg, New York, replaced the factory in Manhattan and warehouse and dry pack facility in Moonachie, New Jersey. Bag-and-box mixes like the matzo ball and soup mix, potato pancake mix, and most of the other side items had been made in New Jersey for years.

Products Besides matzo, Streit's produces many other kosher products under its name. They also operate a separate label of foods called Ethnic Delights, which is mainly condiments and seasonings.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Streit's

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Streit's claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Streit's before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Streit's ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Streit's

In research: Streit's appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Streit's in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Streit's is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1916 establishments in New York (state), Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, Baking mixes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Streit's outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Streit's in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Streit's means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Streit's out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Streit's in simple terms?

Aron Streit, Inc. (sold under the name Streit's) is a kosher food company founded in Manhattan, New York City, best known for its matzo.

Why does Streit's matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Streit's?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Streit's.