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<\/a>Rappaport\u2019s father, Sidney (Shalom) Rappaport, the rabbi at Winnipeg\u2019s Rosh Pina Congregation, was asked by William Omnitsky, the then-owner of the deli, if he might know of someone who could take over the business. At the time, Omnitsky, whose father Louis founded the deli in 1910, was preparing for his own retirement.<\/p>\n
The rabbi suggested his son. Soon afterwards, the young Rappaport met Omnitsky in the store\u2019s small office, and they spoke about the business\u2019s potential and the responsibilities that ownership would entail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe story of this place, and keeping the original Winnipeg name, comes from the respect I had for Bill Omnitsky. When I started, I did not have the money to buy a business. He took back the purchase price as long as I trained with him. Four years later, I was able to take it over,\u201d Rappaport said.<\/p>\n In 1995, after operating Omnitsky\u2019s in Winnipeg for 12 years, Rappaport decided that the Jewish community in Greater Vancouver would present a better fit for his family \u2013 wife Ellen Rappaport (n\u00e9e Lowe) and daughters Aviva and Lauren. The deli initially settled on Cambie Street, near West 41 Avenue, before moving to Oak Street in 2014.<\/p>\n During his tenure, Rappaport expanded Omnitsky\u2019s at both the retail and wholesale level. As the only full-service kosher store this side of Toronto, Omnitsky\u2019s has a clientele that comes from numerous points on the western North American map. Regular patrons often drop in from Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Seattle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Besides the kosher grocery store, Rappaport added a restaurant with a soup and sandwich bar. As a result, a loyal customer base was established for those fond of soups made from scratch and sandwiches the size one finds in New York and Montreal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The deli, open Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., features a wide selection of favourites, from pastrami sandwiches to knishes, matzah ball soup to a chopped liver \u201cappy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With his wholesale operation, Rappaport began making gluten-free hot dogs with no MSG. Several of his products, such as wieners, jumbos and salami, can be found in grocery stores throughout the Lower Mainland, as well as Vancouver Island, under the Eppy\u2019s Kosher label.<\/p>\n Rappaport\u2019s products are also sold to cruise ships, airlines, hospitals, nursing homes and prisons. They have even found their way to possibly his most famous customer, Bette Midler.<\/p>\n From the time he first took over the business from the Omnitsky family, Rappaport has worked long hours, getting in at 6 a.m. and frequently staying until 6 p.m., sometimes even longer into the night, six days a week.<\/p>\n One story that jumps out at him is when the deli had to move from its Cambie Street location to its current location, in 2014. It was in the period leading up to Rosh Hashanah.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as Rabbi [Yechiel] Baitelman was about to place the mezuzah on the doorpost, he looked up and noticed the number 5755 [Oak St.] outside the building, the same year, 5755, which was about to be marked on the Hebrew calendar,\u201d said Rappaport.<\/p>\n In its 113 years of operation, Omnitsky\u2019s has managed to last through the Great Depression, foreign wars, recessions, inflation, challenges from large grocery stores and, of course, changes in ownership.<\/p>\n In late 2022, Rappaport, who was turning 65, felt it was the right time for him to retire. He placed an advertisement in the Canadian Jewish News<\/i> to find a buyer for the store, factory, name and delivery trucks.\u00a0 <\/span>Had a buyer not come forward, Rappaport would have shut the business down.<\/p>\n In an interview last year, Rappaport told a reporter that potentially shuttering Omnitsky\u2019s weighed heavily on him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of people sitting on the fence of whether they want to keep kosher or not. If they lose the ability to just pop in on their way home from work in order to have something for dinner, then that falls by the wayside,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only people who are left are the ones who care and truly want kosher food because it becomes a conscious effort to order it. It becomes more difficult, and a lot of people may use this as an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n However, a new owner did come along in the form of Wood, the business director at BC Kosher. Rappaport expressed hope that the community would continue to support Omnitsky\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cRichard\u2019s passion and commitment to kashrut will continue to strengthen and fulfil the community\u2019s needs,\u201d Rappaport said.<\/p>\n In November, Rappaport wrote a thank you letter to the Vancouver community, published in the Jewish Independent<\/i>, in which he said it was \u201cimpossible to convey the incredible 40-year journey this has been.\u00a0 <\/span>I truly believe that this labour of love was what I was destined to do in life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>