Archive Committee Discovers Former Rebbetzin's 
Famous Family History

With Passover less than a week away, the Archive Committee would like to share some Beth El history from the seventies concerning the holiday preparations of our then rebbetzin, Mrs. Muriel Golovensky, as well as some of her family history.

Rabbi and Mrs. Golovensky earned celebrity status when their Passover holiday preparations were showcased in The New York Times on Wednesday, March 19, 1975. An article in the popular Family-Food-Fashions-Furnishings section of the paper featured Mrs. Golovensky’s seder table preparations. The Times article included some of Mrs. Golovensky’s most treasured Passover recipes, including her Walnut Cake recipe that had been conceived by her grandmother, Regina Margareten. That recipe is reprinted below. Over the years, several of her Passover recipes were reprinted in Family Circle and other national magazines. 

In searching Beth El Bulletin archives, we uncovered interesting information about the family of our former rebbetzin that appeared in the April 1984 Bulletin on the occasion of the Horowitz-Margareten Matzoh Company’s centennial. The article traces the history of the famous matzoh company, founded by Mrs. Muriel Golovensky’s great grandparents, Jacob and Muriel Horowitz, with the help of their four sons, their daughter Regina, and her husband, Chaim Margareten. When Jacob Horowitz died only one year after initiating their business venture, daughter Regina and her husband decided to carry on the family business with the help of her brothers. Regina was Mrs. Muriel Golovensky’s grandmother.

Guided by the principles of hard work, fierce family loyalty, strong religious convictions, and philanthropy, Regina became a highly successful entrepreneur in the family’s matzoh business. Under her leadership, the family business achieved great success as one of the leading kosher food companies. She served as matriarch of both the business and her family until the age of 96. During the Passover season, granddaughter Muriel and her cousins worked after school at the Horowitz-Margareten matzoh factory on the Lower East Side to help the company meet consumer demand for matzot.

According to the Bulletin, at the time of its centennial, the Horowitz-Margareten Matzoh Company was the only matzoh and kosher food business with continuous family ownership, spanning five generations. During the company’s centennial year, Mrs. Muriel Golovensky served as the unofficial family publicist and even appeared on television to discuss the history of her family and their company.

In 1984 the B. Manischewitz Company acquired various assets of the Horowitz-Margareten Company, including its name and trademark, and started marketing a line of kosher foods under the Horowitz-Margareten name. The Manischewitz family maintained majority ownership of its company until 1991, when Kohlberg & Co. bought it. In 1998, Millbrook Distribution Services, a subsidiary of R.A.B. Enterprises, completed a purchase agreement with Kohlberg and bought Manischewitz for $83.8 million in cash, $38.8 million in debt repayments, and $2.1 million in expenses. In August 2004, the B. Manischewitz Co. LLC changed its name to RAB Food Group, LLC.

Mrs. Muriel Golovensky’s Passover Walnut Cake
(Originally conceived by her grandmother, Regina Margareten)

10 large eggs, separated
Rind and juice of one orange
Rind and juice of one lemon
Pinch of salt
10 rounded tablespoons sugar, about one cup
10 rounded tablespoons very finely ground walnuts, about one cup plus two tablespoons
10 level tablespoons Passover cake meal, about ¾ cup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat the egg yolks with the orange and lemon rind and juice until thickened.
3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the egg whites and salt until stiff. Gradually beat in the sugar until the mixture is the consistency of thick marshmallow.
4. Gradually fold in the yolk mixture. Combine the walnuts and cake meal and mix very well. Fold the mixture into the egg mixture. Spoon into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, that has a removable bottom. Bake one hour or until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan turned upside down. Loosen the cake very carefully around the edges and ease out of the pan. With a spatula, remove the loose bottom, and place the cake, bottomside up, on a serving plate.

Yield: About 12 servings.
Note: This cake rises and then falls because of the nature of the mixture.