Kosher Meal Proves To Be Sellout Success

The billboard at 29th and Perry proclaiming the annual kosher dinner at nearby Temple Beth Shalom had to be updated Sunday.

“Sold out,” read a small follow-up banner affixed to the big sign.

Parked cars were the second tip-off that the afternoon-long gathering had passed “popular event” status and evolved into a bona fide Spokane happening. They lined the streets around the synagogue for blocks.

Still, a few optimists without tickets walked up to the temple entrance, hoping. And Rabbi Jacob Izakson was among those who had to break the news. For the first time in the 56 years of the dinner, all 3,000 tickets had been snapped up before the doors opened.

“Lord willing, you’ll be able to join us next year,” he told a couple of women who had to be turned away.

Those with tickets were led into the temple, where a program of traditional Jewish songs, music and stories was under way down on the altar. If the ushers seated you on the side near the door leading to the dining hall, you could smell brisket of beef as you listened to the violin.

Several times, one of the organizers borrowed a microphone and gently explained that the size of the early-afternoon crowd necessitated that people not dawdle after finishing dinner.

And Izakson, a likable guy who enjoys acknowledging his Texas background by saying “Shalom, y’all,” joked that those who wanted to scalp their tickets could probably do quite well if they went back outside.

Row by row, people were led away from the ongoing music and into the dining hall where they were seated cafeteria-style at long tables. One seatmate, an older man named Bob, said he had been to all 56 annual kosher dinners.

Hadn’t he ever missed one because of, say, the flu or a broken ankle? No, he said. He’d been to all of them.

Even with the crush, everything seemed orderly. But one teenage beverage server was stressed out: “Ten hundred people want water.”

Then the plates with the food arrived. In addition to the brisket, there were potato knishes, challah, carrot tzimmes and apricot kuchen.

If some of that isn’t familiar to you, here’s a piece of advice. Get your ticket early next year. Then find out for yourself.

At about 2 p.m., the line of ticketholders standing outside waiting to get in numbered about 100. “Is it worth the wait?” someone asked a group that had eaten and was leaving.

“Yes.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits gatherings in the Inland Northwest.