There's a (soon-to-be) new delivery service in town, but this one is "bubbe-approved."
Hello Mazel is a new nationwide subscription service that promises to deliver a box of both edible and non-edible Jewish goodies four times a year, starting this April for Passover. The service was dreamed up by members of The Kitchen, an alternative, non-denominational Jewish community in San Francisco and includes items that are curated by a variety of experts -- from San Francisco tastemakers to Facebook's former director of market development, Randi Zuckerberg, who is a member of the Hello Mazel team.
The team launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier this month and doubled its initial goal of $18,000 in just one day. It's now the most funded Jewish project in Kickstarter's history. The $45 boxes will ship nationwide in the U.S. and to Canada.
Founded in 2011, The Kitchen aspires to be inclusive of seekers at all levels of Jewish knowledge who are looking for ways to engage with their Jewish identity. Yoav Schlesinger, The Kitchen's executive director, told The Huffington Post that the idea for Hello Mazel came from an understanding that people engage with Judaism in different ways.
"The experience of communal prayer or being in a community Shabbat dinner, the hooks that most Jewish communities use, are not necessarily the appropriate entry points or avenues for everyone," Schlesinger told The Huffington Post.
Founded in 2011, The Kitchen aspires to be inclusive of seekers at all levels of Jewish knowledge who are looking for ways to engage with their Jewish identity. Yoav Schlesinger, The Kitchen's executive director, told The Huffington Post that the idea for Hello Mazel came from an understanding that people engage with Judaism in different ways.
"The experience of communal prayer or being in a community Shabbat dinner, the hooks that most Jewish communities use, are not necessarily the appropriate entry points or avenues for everyone," Schlesinger told The Huffington Post.
The mission of Hello Mazel, and The Kitchen community in general, is to "break down the barriers that have traditionally served to keep people away." To that end, while Hello Mazel's boxes will have kosher ingredients, the products won't necessarily be certified kosher by a rabbinic authority.
"People who are keeping kosher are already doing something Jewish. They've already opted in," Schlesinger said. "Our primary market is those people who are not doing that everyday, who aren't necessarily thinking about how to live Jewishly at every moment."
"Instead of asking, 'Who is Jewish,' we want to know, 'Who wants to do Jewish?" Schlesinger told HuffPost.
Also On HuffPost: