Dov Behr Manischewitz

Dov Behr Manischewitz (1856 or 1857 or 1858 – March 8, 1914), Dov Baer, Dov Bear, Dave Behr, and born Dov Behr Abramson, was a Lithuanian-American rabbi and businessman, known for his innovations in the manufacture of matzah, and for his creation of the company bearing his name.

Early life Manischewitz was born and raised in Salant (Salantai), and studied under Rabbi Israel Salanter in Memel, where he trained as a shochet. using the identification documents of a dead man named "Manischewitz". Although he stated that he emigrated because he had been hired as a shochet by the Jewish community of Cincinnati, and the conveyor belt-based "traveling carrier bake-oven", which he patented. These methods were initially controversial, and questions were raised as to whether machine-made food complied with kashrut;

His matzah business was successful enough that in 1913, he was able to move to the upscale Cincinnati neighborhood of Walnut Hills. As well, he sponsored the creation of the Manischewitz yeshiva in what was then Palestine; decades later, his sons argued in court that their continued funding of the yeshiva was a business expense, as its graduates would help to spread the idea that machine-made matzah could still be kosher.