In March I was contacted by a reporter, Yitzchok Shteirman, who writes within the Jewish Orthodox press. I know this community loves seltzer, and has a strong affinity for it, so I’ve been surprised that they hadn’t discovered the book until now. Speaking with Yitzchok was a delight, as was his lovely article (below) focused on the union battles within the Boro Park community in Brooklyn.

In part, his piece goes deeper into a lovely historical tidbit that I was delighted to include in Seltzertopia (page 183-184):

The Jewish Daily Forward, an avowedly socialist paper of the time, dutifully covered labor conflicts within their growing community. On November 3, 1906, as the seltzer industry tried to unionize, the Forward wrote: “Despite hunger, exhaustion, and beatings of employees at the hands of gangs hired by their bosses the ongoing strike of the Union of Mineral Water Workers is holding fast and is as strong as iron.” Until the “bosses and shops . . . simply accept the union and allow their workers to join it,” wrote the paper, always ready to wave its partisan flag, “the Forward requests that its readers not drink any seltzer,” unless of course it has the union label on the bottle. “Without the union label,” the Forward exhorted, “you’ll be drinking bloody seltzer!”

Enjoy the full piece in the image below.