The Day of Rest

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”

—First Amendment

Springfield, Massachusetts has only a small Jewish population. However, beginning in 1953 it supported the Crown Kosher Super Market at 57 Sumner Avenue. Orthodox Jews from as far away as Vermont and Connecticut shopped in Harold Chernock’s market because their small towns did not have a purveyor of kosher foods. The closest kosher supermarket was twenty-six miles away

in Hartford, Connecticut.

Because Mr. Chernock and other owners of the store were Orthodox Jews, the Crown market closed at sundown on Friday night and did not reopen until Sunday morning. Observance of the Jewis...

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