Pizza Quest: Rabbi Shmaria Shore, The Long and Winding Road to Israel

Welcome back to Pizza Quest,

As you know, we’ve been putting a lot more emphasis on the Quest aspect of Pizza Quest these days and this episode is a great example. In 1971, over 50 years ago, I was a founding member of a restaurant collective in Boston called Root One Cafe, one of the early organic food restaurants in the country. Yes, we were pressing out carrot juice way before Jamba and all the juice bars were born (in fact, our logo on the sign hanging above the door was a giant carrot). One of our members was a young student from Antioch College, Steven Shore, who had decided to do his work-study internship at our cafe, and so he lived with us for a number of months back in 1972 and even got college credit for it. He and I became good friends and, over the years stayed in touch, reconnecting after he contacted me from Israel, where he had moved and become a rabbi and was working on a book about his journey. This is just the headline so, for the rest of the story, join us as Steven, now Rabbi Shmaria Shore, and I catch up and fill in the blanks of his long and winding quest for self-discovery and a meaningful life.

As you read this, at this very moment, Shmaria and our mutual friend and fellow Rooter, Alan Cahn (who joined me on Pizza Quest for a lively conversation about transformation last fall here) and I are planning a 50th anniversary Zoom reunion in May for anyone who worked at Root One.  So, if you are one of them, or know anyone else who was there, please write to me at peter@pizzaquest.com and I’ll send you the details.

And, in honor of Passover, here is my conversation with my old friend, Rabbi Shmaria Shore.