The Judaica Store is closing next month, leaving behind a tradition of selling important and sentimental items meant for every moment of a Jewish person’s life.
Its owner, Rivka Dvorin, said she was unable to find a new owner for the business, leaving her no choice but to close the shop as she enters retirement.
“I tried,” Dvorin said. “I advertised it all over, including in New York and Boston. It just didn’t work out. I had interest, but it’s very different than an offer. I had interest but not a real offer.”
The Judaica Store, which she moved from Hartford to West Hartford over 23 years ago, has been Dvorin’s focus for the last 31 years.
She’s made friends along the way and said she has taken great pride in offering a place for the Jewish community to purchase all their needs for Hanukkah, Passover, Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, and more.
And even with all that emotional attachment to the store that she has worked at for six days a week the last 31 years, Dvorin – who now lives in Avon and will be getting married in June – is at peace with her decision to retire and start her new life.
“I’m the kind of person to say, ‘It is what it is and it’s probably meant to be,'” Dvorin said. “I look at it as a positive instead of a negative, because I served the community for 31 years and I was very happy. It’s the time to say goodbye and retire.”
Dvorin, along with her employee Marla Cohen, have been the faces of the shop for three decades. So much so, that people say “I’m at Rivka’s” instead of the Judaica Store while shopping there.
The store launched the beginning of a retirement sale on April 14 that garnered lines of eager shoppers happy to get a discount on items and say hello, and perhaps goodbye, to Dvorin. She expects the store will remain open through May with discounts increasing each week.
Dvorin acknowledges that the community isn’t happy to have to give those heartfelt goodbyes to her store, because she knows they’re going to miss having a local business to shop at. But, she said, they continue to give her the same kind of support that they always have.
“The community is really very upset that nobody took it over,” Dvorin said. “They are coming to me with cracking voices and tears in their eyes that there won’t be a Jewish shop here. They called it an institute. It’s beautiful and it’s overwhelming.”
Dvorin has seen children grow up, get married, have their own children, and return to the store with their new families. She’s seen emotional grandparents buying prayer shawls for their grandchildren. Without a personal touch that’s not an experience you can have online, Dvorin said.
“People ask where are they going to go now,” Dvorin said. “I see them with real tears in their eyes. They get so excited. How can they do that on the Internet? It reminds them of their grandparents that gave a prayer shawl to them. It’s very, very emotional. I get choked up too because it’s so beautiful to see.”
Dvorin admits business hadn’t been what it used to be, and that the Internet likely had a hand in that.
“The truth is the Internet… is part of the story,” Dvorin said. “It’s the right time to say goodbye. It’s really the right time. And people say, ‘We understand you.’ They feel sorry for the community, but they wish me the best of luck. That’s important to me.”
But the Internet, her customers told her, is lacking one thing: her smile.
Dvorin is not going far. Despite moving to Avon, Dvorin still does her own shopping in West Hartford and wants to be more active at her synagogue as a volunteer.
“I’ll miss the people,” Dvorin said. “I’m ready to say goodbye. I really want to say I’m very grateful for, and enriched by, the relationships I’ve encountered. I’m still part of this community. I’ll see them all over.”
