{"id":97679,"date":"2025-07-27T21:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97679\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T21:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:16:10","slug":"deli-613-fuels-jewish-revival-in-dublin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97679\/","title":{"rendered":"Deli 613 Fuels Jewish Revival in Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the heart of Dublin, Deli 613 is quietly transforming Jewish life by serving Ireland\u2019s only kosher corned beef sandwich alongside a welcoming community space, with shluchim Rabbi Zalman and Rivky Lent now planning a student center and expanded programs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Karen Schwartz \u2013 Chabad.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Deli 613 is the only place in Ireland where customers can get a kosher corned beef sandwich. A project of Chabad-Lubavitch of Ireland, which moved into a new home two years ago, the deli serves up hot soup, sandwiches, falafel and more to Jewish and non-Jewish customers alike. The deli also caters for hotels, corporate business events and travelers, and its food is available for delivery via services like Uber Eats.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of people are looking for authentic kosher food\u2014people that have been to London, people that have been to New York\u2014so we want to fill that void,\u201d says Rabbi Zalman Lent<\/strong>, co-director of Chabad of Ireland, alongside his wife, Rifky<\/strong>, who arrived in Dublin in 2000.<\/p>\n

He adds that they have a commercial kitchen with professional chefs and also runs the only kosher grocery store on the Emerald Isle. \u201cWe were initially going to have a store and then we said, \u2018We should make some fresh food for Shabbos,\u2019 and it just grew from there. It ended up that we\u2019re open six days a week,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Offering what Lent calls an \u201coasis of calm and positivity,\u201d Chabad of Ireland\u2019s community is a diverse one, made up of descendants of Jews who came to Dublin from Lithuania in the 1890s, as well as a few thousand Israelis who have moved to the area for work. They offer Shabbat and holiday dinners, classes, a Sunday Hebrew school, and an adult and children\u2019s library. Chabad of Ireland\u2019s fresh loaves of traditional challah has won it many fans, and Lent says they are hoping to expand to have a custom bakery area in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

For Daniel Koskas, who is from Paris but has lived in Dublin for two-and-a-half years as he pursues his Ph.D. in biomedical robotics, Jewish community is key. So when he was accepted for his doctoral program, one of the first things he did was get in touch with the local Jewish community. And his first stop was Chabad.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Koskas arrived in Dublin a few days before the new Chabad center\u2019s opening, and says he\u2019s there every Friday night, goes to most of the other community activities and buys all of his kosher items there. \u201cIt\u2019s almost my second home,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd especially when you live far from your family, it\u2019s good to have this kind of place. It\u2019s not just a place that allows you to keep Shabbat and keep kosher, but also that gives you Jewish warmth and a family vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of opening the deli, Chabad of Ireland recently purchased property and come September will start renovations for a student center, where. students attending the area\u2019s many universities will feel less isolated, Lent says. \u201cThis will be a social space, a safe space where they can be proudly Jewish without feeling stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday-morning Hebrew school opened last year, and families come from near and far to attend, with kids coming for class and their parents taking the chance to sit and hang out in the deli while the kids are learning Torah. Having such a casual Jewish space has become all the more important with the sharp rise in antisemitism in Irish society.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can come into a place where there\u2019s a library and a kosher store, and you put tefillin and have kosher lunch, and you\u2019ll meet your old friend there,\u201d Rifky Lent says. \u201cThere are people who tell me they come every week just to be in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

For Brigitte Frenkel <\/strong>of Dublin, Deli 613 is a place where they can be who they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really feels like a community center; it\u2019s really nice to have this space to connect and be together,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her family have made lots of friends since becoming involved with Chabad, and she\u2019s there every Sunday for coffee and lunch while her kids\u2014ages 6, 7 and 10\u2014are in class.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask my kids, the best thing is the pita and the chips,\u201d she says, adding that the falafel salad bowl is her favorite item on the menu at the deli. \u201cWe really look forward to coming on Sunday mornings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her family has been taking part in Shabbat dinners, High Holidays, Hebrew school and high holidays, she says.<\/p>\n

The student center will be a welcome addition, says Frenkel, adding that it stands to help the community keep growing and give even more Jews a way to feel connected. As for her kids, she says, she\u2019s glad for every opportunity they get to experience Jewish pride. \u201cThe more we do, the better, because it makes the kids happy with their identity, to be proud to be Jewish,\u201d she says. \u201cIt lets you know you\u2019re not alone, and that we\u2019re small here but feel so connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koskas says he hopes to see the Chabad continue to grow, especially as since the terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he\u2019s seen a surge of people wanting to reconnect to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cRabbi Zalman and Rifky, they\u2019re very ambitious, I think that\u2019s something very exciting to see,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re clearly leading with the lessons of the Rebbe. They\u2019re not just building a Chabad center just to have one in place. There\u2019s really a soul in the project; we can see it incarnated by them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the heart of Dublin, Deli 613 is quietly transforming Jewish life by serving Ireland\u2019s only kosher corned…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[210,1182,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-97679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114927277865226687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}