Wedding is on, Sushi is Too

By COLlive reporter

Simchas and sushi have long been part of the DNA of Crown Heights.

Residents and the many contemporary locals can be attending anything from a bris in the morning, to an upshernish or bar mitzvah later on, to a wedding or a L’chaim in the evening.

And sushi, well, that’s a must for every self-respecting store in the neighborhood that is home to the largest Chabad community in the world.

And a fast moving 1,000-mile-wide storm, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in U.S. history, will not stop them from either.

“Sushi today is more important than milk,” joked Dovid Hershkowitz, owner of Sushi Spot II on Kingston Avenue which is remaining open through hurricane Sandy currently nearing New York.

Hershkowitz said he drove in the early morning hours to bring his chefs to work. Mendy’s Delicatessen and Bunch O Bagels are closed as their employees couldn’t use the transit system, shut down due to the storm.

“We are open and working as long as it’s safe to work,” Hershkowitz said. “For now we want to service our customers and we are doing deliveries as well.”

Depending on the conditions – constant rain and strong winds are blowing in the neighborhood – the store will remain open. “We need to leave the workers enough time for the daily cleaning of the store. And we’ll do the monthly painting another time.”

Schools are closed Monday and all flights across the Northeast have been cancelled. Officials also postponed Monday’s reopening of the Statue of Liberty, which had been closed for a year for $30 million in renovations.

Forecasters said the hurricane could blow ashore Monday night along the New Jersey coast, then cut across into Pennsylvania and travel up through New York State on Wednesday.

COLlive.com has learned that two simches scheduled for Monday evening will be going on as planned – and with much joy.

Maychee Sherr and Shaindy Cadaner, both of Crown Heights families, will be celebrating their engagement Monday night in a L’chaim party at the Eishel building on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Kingston.

And Chaim Shalom Gross of California and Nechama Wagshul of Crown Heights will be married at the Oholei Torah ballroom. Their chuppah will be held outdoors, under the skies, as customary.

He said the families made the decision Sunday night to hold the chuppah at Oholei Torah’s patio, sparing the camera crew from testing pricey video equipment durability through rain and storm.

“I was terrified of the thought,” said videographer Yosef Shidler of CJ Studios. “The new location is less in the open and makes things easier but still will require me to keep the camera heavily wrapped in plastic layers.”

Photographing the wedding will be Meir Pliskin.

The wedding planner Devorah Benjamin advised all vendors of the event to bring their equipment to the hall Sunday night to avoid additional delays due to the storm.

“It’s not the first time I have filmed a wedding in the rain but with wind gusts up to 70 mph I am a little nervous,” Shidler noted. “Either way, this wedding is literally going to blow people away.”