Intermountain Jewish News

It is said that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and that may be especially true in a Jewish home, where so many rituals and observances revolve around special meals.

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, then it can be argued that the East Side Kosher Deli (“the Deli”) is the heart of the Denver Jewish community.

From this busy building at 499 S. Elm St. in Glendale, thousands of Jewish mouths are fed, with ingredients purchased from  the Deli, prepared take-out meals, repasts in the Deli’s restaurant or meetings and celebrations in the banquet rooms, all under the watchful eye of the of “chief cook and bottle washers” Michael and Marcy Schreiber.

The Schreibers’ and the Deli’s identities are intertwined. The role the Deli plays in the life Denver’s Jewish community is in no small part due to its owners’ long hours and sense of responsibility. Their imprint is seen, felt — and tasted — in every aspect of this institution.

The Schreibers assumed their position quite by accident. Their ownership of the community’s main source of kosher food is a culmination of the couple’s Jewish journey pursued together most of their adult lives.

Marcy, daughter of the late Dr. Harold and Rosalie Fishman, comes from a longtime Denver family. She is proud that four generations of her family, including herself, appear in photographs on the BMH-BJ confirmation wall.  Three of four sets of her great-grandparents, plus a great-great-grandfather, are buried in Denver. That’s a pioneer family!

Michael, the son of Gert and the late Max Schreiber, grew up at Beth Joseph.

Michael went to CU, where he studied to be a research biologist, and Marcy received an education degree from Northwestern University.

After college, Michael was a buyer for Dave Cook Sporting Goods, working alongside Paul Fass, Marcy Fishman’s cousin who came to live with her parents after his own parents had died.

Michael Schreiber spent a lot of time at the Fishman home with his friend Paul while Marcy was away at Northwestern. He often noticed the photo of Marcy in her parent’s house, and at the same time, Dr. Fishman was mentioning to his daughter that there was someone hanging around the house she might like to meet.

When Marcy came home from college, the two did meet. They were engaged in 1972 and married in 1973.

The pair embarked on what would become quite a journey, professionally and spiritually.

?Marcy put her education background to work, particularly in early childhood education, serving as director of the Temple Emanuel and Temple Sinai preschools. She was program director at BMH in the early 1980s, and has continuously tutored Bar and Bat Mitzvah students.

Michael worked in wholesale and retail before going to work in the Jewish community. He was the executive director of Hillel Academy six years before becoming program director of the now-defunct TRI synagogue and outreach center.

During this time, the Schreibers were growing in their Jewish observance. Both had grown up traditional — somewhere between Conservative and Orthodox.

Early in their marriage, Marcy’s father Dr. Harold Fishman was attending a class taught by Rabbi Stanley Wagner at BMH. He invited his son-in-law Michael to go to the class with him. At that point Michael says his “pilot light” of Judaism ignited into a bigger flame that has since continued to grow.

Marcy, in the early 1980s, experienced adult Jewish learning for the first time. “It was a real eye opener — adults learning Judaism. We never knew about that before.”  Those experiences, along with the couple’s first trip to Israel on their 10th wedding anniversary, set them on a path of increased Jewish learning, observance and spirituality.

They sent their three children to Hillel Academy, Yeshiva Toras Chaim and Beth Jacob High School for Girls, and continued to grow and learn along with — and from — their children.

Marcy and Michael’s son Sholom, is married to Yehudis Brocho with four children and studies full time in Lakewood, NJ. No matter how busy he is, Michael takes time every day to study with Sholom by phone.

The Schreibers also have twin daughters:  Genny Lifshitz, married to Oren and the mother of three, is a reading specialist also in Lakewood, NJ. Alana is a speech therapist living in Brooklyn.

Just after leaving his position at TRI, Michael was in the process of “regrouping” when he received what then seemed like the strangest phone call.

It was the Thursday night before Labor Day weekend, 1996. A business friend in Minnesota called with the news that the East Side Kosher Deli was in receivership. The friend was the Deli’s largest creditor, but had no interest in owning it. The friend, however, did think the Schreibers might want to take it over.

The Schreibers — who had no experience in running a restaurant or food store — initially balked. The friend used a little Jewish guilt on them: “What’s Denver going to do if we have to close the Deli’s doors?” he asked.

Something about that admonition clicked with the Schreibers, and right after Shabbos that weekend they found themselves spreading the books of the East Side Kosher Deli to determine its viability. Two days later, on Labor Day Monday, Michael was unloading his first truck of merchandise, and on Tuesday, the East Side Kosher Deli reopened for business under the ownership of Michael and Marcy Schreiber.

The East Side Kosher Deli was founded by former Denverite Ed Korlansik. Its first location was next to Pete’s Fruits & Vegetables at Cedar and Holly. It was strictly a deli counter with a few groceries and a couple of tables.

Korlansik sold the Deli to Mel and Irma Weiss, who eventually moved their business to larger quarters at Leetsdale Dr. and Hudson St.

That’s where it was when the Schreibers bought it and took it over in 1996. That 4,500-square-foot location on Leetsdale — a big improvement from the previous Holly and Cedar space — was not large enough for the multi-tasking Schreibers, who wanted the Deli to be much more than just a deli counter.

The Schreibers expanded the sit-down restaurant within the Deli, but the tables were squeezed in between grocery shelves.

And when it came time for Passover, Michael Schreiber rented an off-premise space to sell his large inventory of seasonal merchandise.

The Schreibers grew the business until every square inch of the Leetsdale store was being used. To prevent business from stagnating due to lack of space, they knew, in the back of their minds, they needed move to a larger and more suitable store.

That thought moved to the front of their minds when their landlord informed them the building on Leetsdale was being sold, and they had one year to find a new place. This gave them the impetus to move ahead with their dream of a glatt kosher “supercenter” for the Denver Jewish community.

That dream came true with their acquisition of a prime piece of property — the former Mavericks, St. Petersburg and Tommy Wongs Island restaurants — at the corner of Virginia Ave. and Elm St. in Glendale.

At that point Marcy — who had stayed in her position as Temple Sinai preschool director — joined Michael in the Deli full time.