Streit’s Matzah Factory in Rockland County Provides Matzah for Millions

By Sarah Morgenstern

Unlike most matzah bakeries, which provide matzah for local communities, the Streit’s Matzos Factory in Orangeburg bakes matzah for the entire country and other countries, as well.

The Streit’s matzah factory, which churns out 1 million sheets of matzah most days, also ships its pink boxes of machine-made matzah to Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia, and Israel.

Aron Streit, who first made matzah in Austria in the 1800s, along with his business partner Rabbi Weinberger, opened a handmade matzah bakery on Pitt Street on the Lower East Side, after he emigrated  to New York City in 1916, before moving to nearby 150 Rivington Street.

Soon after, the business partners bought the neighboring buildings to expand their assembly line that wound through four six-story buildings.

Streit’s operated in the urban 48,000 square foot space until the fall of 2016, when the growing operation moved into a 100,000 square foot, high-tech factory in Orangeburg.

Three other large matzah companies in the US boast large factories, but Westchester news12 reported that Streit’s is the “most technologically-advanced one yet:” right in Rockland County.

Streit’s great-great-grandchildren now run the company, whose annual sales top $20 million, CBS reported.

Every morning the Streit’s matzah factory receives a delivery of 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of flour that is then pumped into the building’s flour silos, explained Aron Streit’s great-great grandson.

Once the flour has been mixed water that has been resting: it is a race against the clock to mix, sheet, and bake the matzah within 18 minutes.

Plus, to ensure kashrus, everyone who handles the matzah before it is baked must be an observant Jew.

"Nothing changes at Streit's," Rabbi Mayer Kirshner, who oversaw the factory's kosher certification on the Lower East Side, told CBS. "I'm not bored. I love this work. This is important. It's our religion: it's the history of the Jews."