The Paskesz Candy Story Like all great endeavors, Paskesz Candy Inc. had its humble beginnings. The idea was born in Mako, Hungary, in the early part of the 20th century. In order to support his growing family, Anshel Paskesz opened a store that sold hard candies and citrus fruits. Though not a huge financial success, it motivated his son Lazar to continue in the food business, but he chose to specialize exclusively in candy and chocolates. Probably due to his own sweet tooth, Lazar became a "maven" in the confectionery industry. After opening a retail store in the city of Bonyhad, Hungary, which was a success, he moved to Nyireghaza, where he ventured into the wholesale line and began selling to other stores in the area.
 
Then came World War II and the Holocaust with all its horror and destruction.
 
Bereft of his family, Lazar returned to Nyireghaza where he was appointed the head of the Jewish community (Rosh Hakohol), and began a new life. He set about rebuilding his business. With lots of determination, and more than a little "chutzpah", he approached one of the best known chocolate manufacturers in Austria and together they somehow managed to produce "chocolate" at a time when ingredients were scarce and almost impossible to acquire. Due to his business acumen and his personal charisma, and mainly with the help of G-d, he was able to sell whatever was manufactured.
 
Having remarried and started a family, Lazar decided in the early fifties to come to America. He arrived in New York City in the summer of 1954, with a wife and three children, and no means of supporting them. Discussing his dilemma with his Rabbi (R' Teitelbaum of Satmar) it was suggested that he continue with his lifelong ambition of selling confectionery.
 
Within a week of his arrival, he persuaded a cookie manufacturer to produce kosher cookies under the "Paskesz" name. This meant driving the supervising Rabbi (at that time, Rabbi Moshe Stern of Debrecen), plus an interpreter, since neither of them spoke English, to the plant in Philadelphia. Two hours later, loaded in his van, he brought home the first production of kosher cookies under the Paskesz label. (The label had to actually be applied to every package by his family members, by hand.)
 
From that time on, KOSHER has been and is the first and foremost objective of Paskesz Candy.
 
Paskesz Candy started in the U.S. as a small store in the East New York section of Brooklyn. In a short time it moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn where it remained for a number of years. At this point Mr. Paskesz tried his hand at manufacturing and set up a tiny shop in the back of the store for molding chocolate. This didn't last very long because his forte was finding new items, whether domestic or imported, koshering them and selling, especially selling.
 
Before long, he outgrew the store in Crown Heights. He now moved the wholesale division to a 10,000 sq. foot warehouse in Boro Park, Brooklyn. all the time growing and expanding with new products and innovations. It was at this point that Mr. Paskesz developed the imported market in Kosher confectionery. Paskesz Candy marketed the first Kosher chewing gum in the 60's. Mr. Paskesz traveled to Denmark by ship (he was afraid to fly) looking for a gum manufacturer willing to kosherize .He returned three weeks later with a sample of a gold foiled gum coin. The only stipulation was that the gum base had to be manufactured kosher in New Jersey, shipped to Amsterdam, converted into chewing gum under Rabbinical supervision and shipped back to N.Y. as Paskesz Kosher Chewing Gum! An incredible feat for those times!
 
In the 70's the next generation joined Mr. Paskesz. With the additional help more time and effort were allocated to product development and in a short time Paskesz Candy became the leader in bringing new products and innovative ideas to the rapidly growing kosher market.
 
In the early 80's the warehouse moved once more, this time to First Avenue an industrial area in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. The Company now occupied 33,000 sq.ft. and was continuously expanding and growing. It was at this time that the famous "Milk Munch" chocolate bar was developed and imported by Paskesz candy. It was the first of its kind in the Cholov Yisroel kosher market! Since Paskesz Candy was by this time importing a third of its product line from overseas, a full-time Rabbi was retained for all overseas productions
 
In addition to its domestic line of products, Paskesz now sells and imports products from all over Europe, Israel and South America. Rabbi Osher Y. Westheim of the Manchester Beis Din supervises all overseas productions. Rabbi Illiovitz of Sao Paulo, Brazil, supervises the South American products. Rabbi Binyomin Gruber of the CRC takes care of all domestic productions. It was in the 90's that Paskesz Candy Inc. hit the Kosher Market with their most popular products. The first and famous "Sour Sticks", the first "pas yisroel" Melba Toast and recently, the famous line of Haribo gummies. Paskesz is the exclusive importer and distributor for this world famous company in the U.S.A. manufacturing Gummy bears, Gummy snakes etc.
 
In addition to selling hundreds of products under the Paskesz brand name and logo, they also import and distribute other world-class products such as, the popular Israeli Man line of wafers and cookies, VERED Chocolates of Israel and the world famous, up-scale TORINO CHOCOLATES of Switzerland by Camille-Bloch.
 
"Paskesz" products can be found throughout Europe, Israel, Australia, Canada, and of course, North and South America. They have a European division, Paskesz International Ltd. in Antwerp, Belgium that administers to business in many European countries
 
All in all, Paskesz Candy Inc. has achieved its objective and goal of making all the candy and confectionery you ever dreamed of… in Kosher!
 
Paskesz now occupies a 56,000-sq. ft. warehouse, runs a mechanized candy packaging department and a fleet of their own trucks. They are still devoted to its founder's dream, of bringing the kosher consumer the newest products of the highest quality and Kashrus… and getting ready for the fourth generation to operate and further expand the Company.
 
The Greatest Noshes Come From Paskesz !