Being ProSemitic: Ice Cream

Here’s the SCOOP:
1. Interestingly enough, Häagen-Dazs was created in 1959 by Reuben Mattus, a Polish-Jewish immigrant in the Bronx, along with his wife Rose. He chose a fake Danish-sounding name as a tribute to Denmark’s rescue of Jews during World War II. Or maybe they just wanted their product to sound fancy?
2. Then there’s Baskin-Robbins, founded by Irv Robbins, who used his $6,000 bar mitzvah gift money to open his first shop with brother-in-law Burt Baskin in Glendale, California, in 1945.
3. A bit more famously Jewish were Ben & Jerry’s founders, childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield who grew up in New York but started their ice cream business in Vermont in 1978.
4. Should we also count Tofutti? The story is that David Mintz was looking for an ice cream that wasn’t a dairy product for both kosher reasons (dietary observant Jews don’t consume milk and meat together) and for something that could pass for ice cream but be acceptable for lactose-intolerant, vegetarian, and vegan folks. His product is soy-based, non-dairy using tofu. He introduced Tofutti in 1981, after nine years of working to create his now-famous secret formula that has added Tofutti Cuties (ala ice cream sandwiches) and other non-dairy products like sour cream, cream cheese, sliced cheese and ricotta cheese.