If you close your eyes and think of Passover, what comes to mind? Maybe the crunch of the matzoh breaking in half. The smell of the parsley as it gets passed around the table. The muffled sounds of kids running around looking for the afikoman. And the sight of a box of Jell Rings, the chocolate-covered jelly candy that appears, like clockwork, on Seder tables across the country for dessert.
Jell Rings are produced by Joyva, a third- and fourth-generation family business based in Brooklyn, along with other Passover classics like Marshmallow Twists, as well as the halvah, tahini, and sesame crunch the company is famous for.
It’s a Jewish New York success story: In 1907, a Ukrainian immigrant named Nathan Radutzky started selling halvah out of a pushcart on the Lower East Side. That pushcart became a storefront and then a factory, and the company was later named to honor Nathan’s granddaughter Roslyn Joy, combining “Joy” with the “-va” from halvah.
I recently visited the company’s headquarters in East Williamsburg, an area that no doubt looked very different when the factory opened in 1931. (There’s now a Rivian service center across the street.) But inside the walls, not much has changed in the past hundred years—in a good way. Nathan’s handwritten recipe for halvah sits in the office of the company’s third and fourth-generation owners, Richard Radutzky, Sandy Wiener, and Ben Radutzky, who regularly ask themselves What would Nathan do?
Joyva has all the hallmarks of iconic Jewish businesses like Russ & Daughters, Zabar’s, and Moscot—a beloved product, a deep New York history, and a family committed to keeping the magic going generation after generation. For Joyva, that responsibility is extra pronounced in the lead-up to Passover, when the company produces a whopping 10 million Jell Rings for Seder table consumption.
I got my own golden ticket to go behind the scenes at the Joyva factory—hairnet and all—and see how their classic Passover treats get made:
Thank you to Jovya mensches Richard and Sandy for showing me around. The fun isn’t over yet: they’ve offered to send a Passover package to one lucky GOLDA reader. To enter, all you need to do is reply to this email and tell us your favorite Joyva treat.
Stay GOLDA,
Stephanie