The Jewish Press featured Masbia’s cookbook campaigns with Menuchah Armel, author of Straight to the Plate, and Mandy Silverman of Mandylicious, author of Twisted. Written by Tiferet Schafler, the story followed the chain of organizations and individuals who helped Armel turn her dream of publishing a cookbook into reality, and how that same cookbook is now helping Masbia provide food to families in need. The article also highlighted Silverman’s similar collaboration with Masbia, connecting her family’s tradition of helping others with her new cookbook.

The Jewish Press Headline: How One Organization’s Helping Hand Became a Chain of Giving

Byline: Tiferet Schafler

Mandy Silverman and her cookbook, Twisted: A New Approach to Challah, Babka, and Other Twisty Breads. (Masbia)

Menuchah Armel’s story is a real-life application of the Chazal’s dictum, “mitzvah goreret mitzvah” – one good deed leads to another.

For more than 15 years, Armel ran a cooking and catering business from her home. But her real dream was publishing a cookbook. Armel had attended annual Temech conferences, an Israeli organization dedicated to helping chareidi women build businesses and acclimate into professional careers and the work force, for about a decade. When she started attending monthly networking meetings in Kiryat Sefer with a business coach, organized by Temech, her dreams slowly grew into fruition through a series of helping hands.

Besides gaining the technical skills taught and practiced in the group, like practicing pitching your business or service or discussing how to price your items or services, the very office space the group was running in became another place where a helping hand set in. And within a few months of attending the group, Armel was on her way to creating her cookbook.

“The office space we were using belonged to a business coach, and when I had mentioned to her that it was my dream to write a cookbook and run cooking workshops, she offered me a free consultation,” Armel told The Jewish Press. “We worked together a few other times, and she created a business plan for me; set me up with a food photographer; my husband, a writer himself, helped me find a graphic designer and establish a publishing timeline; and another woman in the Temech group became the editor of the cookbook. All of a sudden, I was on my way.”

In September 2022, Armel self-published her cookbook, Straight to the Plate. Though she finally created the cookbook she dreamed of, the next challenge was selling it: not having a publisher meant her book didn’t have an “in” in book stores or a designated outlet to sell at. “I put in a tremendous amount of time to promote the book, through a lot of networking and a lot of cooking demonstrations.”

Then came October 7. The country was mourning, fighting, and businesses were struggling. And Rivkie Feiner, CEO of Feiner Grant Strategies, became the next helping hand for Armel. Feiner came to Israel at this time, said Armel, because she wanted to help businesses in Israel. Through Temech, she offered times for meeting with her. “During this meeting, she went around the room and asked each woman how she could help them build up their business. I said, ‘I want to be able to sell the cookbook I created.’” Within six weeks, Feiner had set up cooking demonstrations for Armel to do in America, where she could promote her cookbook.

“The two women she connected me with in Lakewood to run the workshops even came to pick up the duffle bags full of cookbooks that came on the plane.”

While Armel was in America for the demonstrations, Temech also happened to be running a fundraising campaign, and Feiner sponsored Armel’s book for the 50 people that signed up for the fundraising dinner. “It was incredible to walk into the room and see my book on 50 chairs.”

Then came the next helping hands: ESEK and Masbia. Feiner connected Armel with ESEK, an organization supporting Israeli small businesses and entrepreneurs primarily by connecting them with global consumers, amongst other initiatives, to help sell her book globally. And after continuing her search for a publisher who could get her book into stores, Menucha publishers took on the task and published a second version of the cookbook. As a result, just one month ago, Alexander Rappaport, executive director of Masbia, saw Armel’s book in Eichler’s and reached out to Armel through Feiner to collaborate on a campaign. 

So after a full cycle of one hand helping another, Armel’s cookbook comes full circle to give back again through Masbia, where supporters can receive Straight to the Plate with an eligible donation that helps Masbia provide food to families in need.

“What struck me is how many mitzvahs became connected through one cookbook,” said Masbia Executive Director Alexander Rapaport. “Temech helped a woman build a career. ESEK helped bring an entrepreneur in Israel to a wider audience. A publisher gave the cookbook another platform. And now Menuchah Armel is using that same cookbook to help us put food on the tables of families in need.”

Another Masbia cookbook collaborator, Mandy Silverman of Mandylicious, a gourmet challah brand and Silverman’s social media handle, is following a similar cycle. Silverman grew up watching her mother help families through Tomchei Shabbos in Massachusetts. Continuing this tradition of giving, Silverman’s new cookbook, Twisted: A New Approach to Challah, Babka, and Other Twisty Breads, is being offered as a gift through Masbia with eligible donations. 

Now, Armel is focusing on a new branch of her business, “Cooking with Confidence,” where she offers at-home 1:1 cooking lessons, as well as cooking demonstrations for groups. Though she doesn’t attend the monthly Temech meetings anymore, she attends Temech’s networking events as much as possible, and is taking a marketing course with the former leader of the group from Temech. In that sense, the cycle of giving is continuing to unfold: the skill building, connections and acts of chesed that helped Armel reach one career goal remain in place in continuing to support her as she reaches the next one.

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For the cookbook, click here.