Building Babkush
Olivia Spitzer
“I kept saying ‘I’m going to start small and see if it has legs.’ And at every sort of step people were like, ‘make more!’” If you’ve tried Zicra Lukin’s babka then you know what those people were talking about. Babkush, Lukin’s pandemic-grown Jewish bakery, has the kind of products that make everyone scream for more.
In 2020, Lukin was in politics, worlds away from baking. “I had been working doing political organizing around gun violence prevention. It’s a stressful environment anyway and it was extra stressful during the deaths of the pandemic, the spikes in gun violence.” Spring break for her children that year took place during the strict quarantine times. Everything was still closed. Lukin asked her daughter how she wanted to spend her time. “She was like, ‘I want to make babka.’ So I said, ‘let’s make babka.’”
Babka is a Jewish sweet bread, often made with cinnamon, jams, dried fruit, or chocolate. Babka is thought to have begun as a way to use excess challah dough, thereby transforming the dish from a Friday night staple into a delicious weekend treat. In many parts of the world, Jews eat babka and at such a tumultuous time, Lukin found some comfort in that fact. Some connection. “I think that one thing that happened a little bit around the pandemic, which coincided with [my daughter’s] bat mitzvah, I became a bit more tapped into my Jewish identity. There were a lot of conversations about identity going on and it made me stop and think.”
She reflected and she baked. She spent those early pandemic days experimenting with babka in her home kitchen. “I spent six months testing recipes. Then, when I started selling to people I was sending out a google form every week and people would place their orders. Because I came from this organizing background it was like, ‘order your babka AND call your legislator AND go to this protest.’”
While protesting and pastry may not seem like a natural pairing to everyone, this move made a lot of sense to Lukin. Her emerging signature babka, and later other delicacies such as rugelach, and amaretti had Lukin examining how she cooks for herself, her family, and her community. “felt there was underrepresentation – not of Jews or Judaism – but I wanted to provide a fuller understanding of what Jewish food is. A broadened understanding of Jewish food – not only Ashkenazi Jewish food as seen in every New York deli.” As a woman with family across the globe, this meant a lot to Lukin. “I wanted to bring in some representation of Jewish communities from different parts of the world.”
Babkush is not a certified kosher bakery. Lukin is a Jewish woman, a baker, and an activist, making traditionally Jewish foods. For Lukin, Babkush is a manifestation of those intersections. “I am a third Israeli. I was born in the United States, my parents were born here, and my family moved to Israel in stages.” The intersection of food and politics is central to her business. Lukin donates a percentage of her profits to the nonprofit organization B’Tselem, “an Israeli human rights organization that opposes the occupation. It’s an important conversation to have in Jewish communities in America. My mother lives in Israel and she’s out protesting four or five days a week. She sent me this t-shirt that says in Hebrew, Arabic, and English ‘there is no democracy with occupation.’”
Coming to Hillsdale Farmers’ Market was a leap forward for Babkush. Lukin traded home deliveries for a one-stop shop, where she can still greet her customers personally. “I’ve had some great conversations. People say, ‘this reminds me of the babka I’d get at the bakery when I was growing up!’ I am getting a glimpse into other people’s connections around Jewish food, and they might not even be Jewish – ‘Once upon a time I ate this thing and I can’t remember what it’s called but it looked like this and I never forgot it!’”
You can find Lukin and her bakery, Babkush, at Hillsdale on Sundays. Her baked goods are also popping up in coffee shops and stores around the city. Keep your eyes peeled for her distinctive gold foil and the Babkush logo. When asked about her bakery’s name, you can hear the smile in her voice. “In Hebrew when we want to say something is diminutive, like in Spanish it’s ‘-ita,’ to call something cute is ‘-kush.’ So Babkush. It’s ‘cute little babka.’”