![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jul-25-Vancouver-Island.25.Essential-Kosher-ext.jpg\")
<\/a>Kaplan said he conceived of the idea of a kosher market after concluding that \u201cno affordable kosher food was available on the island, which made it very difficult for people to keep kosher in Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea became a reality once we realized that we had a space next to the synagogue that could accommodate a market, and we had two Jewish families who moved here from Mexico and who were looking to do something for the community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt turned out be a great opportunity and a match made in heaven for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the Franco and Kantorovich families had established businesses in Mexico.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kantorovich\u2019s grandfather, Kiva, migrated from Russia during the Second World War and, starting from scratch, opened a hardware store in downtown Mexico City. The store survived for more than 70 years and could have continued, but, after managing it for 30 years, Kantorovich decided to sell the business, hoping for a fresh start someplace else.<\/p>\n Franco had a company that sold plastic bags used for food packaging but decided to leave Mexico, he said, because of \u201cthe growing insecurity and increasing crime rates\u201d and out of a desire \u201cto look for a better place for our son to grow up.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The two families chose to move to Victoria because Franco\u2019s wife, Claudia, and Kantorovich\u2019s wife, Andrea, both had an opportunity to pursue master\u2019s degrees at Royal Roads University. While the Franco family had never been to Victoria before, the Kantoroviches had fallen in love with the city when their cruise ship to Alaska stopped there for a day. This short stay was the catalyst for the two families, who are close friends, to move to Victoria together.<\/p>\n The families were invited by\u00a0<\/span>Kaplan for a Shabbat dinner, and their connection to Jewish life in Victoria began.<\/p>\n The Chabad community \u201chas been especially kind to us, even though we are not Orthodox,\u201d said Franco. \u201cThey include all kinds of Jewish families in their programs\u00a0<\/span>and events and make everyone feel at home.\u201d<\/p>\n Franco likes that the Victoria Jewish community is growing, and offering more educational opportunities and activities for children. He remarked \u201chow warm and welcoming people have been here.<\/p>\n \u201cBack home, people tend to be a bit more distant or indifferent,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>he said.<\/p>\n Mexico City\u2019s Jewish community is much larger than that\u00a0<\/span>of Victoria.<\/p>\n \u201cVictoria feels calm, friendly and full of nature,\u201d said Franco.<\/p>\n Initially, Franco and Kantorovich were thinking about opening a business on their own, however, Kaplan convinced them to open a kosher store \u201cbecause the community really needed one and he also explained how kosher supplies were missing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The three of them decided to run the store together.<\/p>\n \u201cRabbi Kaplan supports and guides the store, and we manage the store on a day-to-day basis,\u201d said Franco.<\/p>\n The market, which is open Sundays to Fridays, offers a variety of kosher items, including meat, cold cuts and poultry, Chalav Yisrael dairy products, grape juice and gefilte fish, Israeli snacks and fresh baked challah every Friday, which is baked by Rebbetzin Chani Kaplan, with her family sometimes sharing baking and cooking duties with her. Soon, customers should be able to shop online, and additional products will be available. Opening just prior to Passover, Essential Kosher offered customers kosher-for-Passover items.<\/p>\n For more information about the market, visit chabadvi.org<\/a> or email essentialkosher@gmail.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n David J. Litvak<\/b> is a prairie refugee from the North End of Winnipeg who is a freelance writer and publicist, and a mashgiach at Louis Brier Home and Hospital. His articles have been published in the <\/i>Forward, <\/i>Globe and Mail and <\/i>Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His website is cascadiapublicity.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The grand opening of Essential Kosher on March 26. Cutting the ribbon are Rebbetzin Chani and Rabbi Meir Kaplan, centre, and Essential Kosher co-managers Zev Kantorovich, left, with wife Andrea and daughter Stephie, and David Franco, second from the right, with his wife, Claudia, and son, Jacob. (photo by David J. Litvak) Victoria\u2019s observant Jewish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22916,4830,24197,24196,6073,356,1225,2628,4831,6224,24198],"class_list":["post-47261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-chabad-of-vancouver-island","tag-chani-kaplan","tag-david-franco","tag-essential-kosher","tag-food","tag-immigration","tag-kashrut","tag-kosher","tag-meir-kaplan","tag-victoria","tag-zev-kantorovich"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}