Jews and Chocolate: A Sweet and Surprising History

The Converso Connection

The story of Jews and chocolate begins with one of Jewish history’s great ironies: the same Spanish monarchy that expelled the Jews in 1492 sent Columbus across the Atlantic that same year — where Europeans would encounter cacao for the first time. And it was the descendants of those expelled Jews who would help bring chocolate to Europe.

Many Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity — known as conversos or, pejoratively, marranos — maintained their Jewish identity in secret while outwardly practicing Catholicism. These crypto-Jews were prominent in transatlantic commerce, including the lucrative trade in cacao beans from Mexico and Central America.

Converso merchants in the Caribbean, Brazil, and Venezuela were among the early processors and traders of cacao. When the Inquisition’s reach extended to the New World, some conversos fled to more tolerant places — Amsterdam, Bayonne (in southwestern France), London, and Hamburg — bringing their expertise in chocolate production with them.

Bayonne became a particularly important center. The city’s chocolate guild, established in the seventeenth century, included numerous crypto-Jewish families who had settled there after fleeing the Iberian Peninsula. To this day, Bayonne is famous for its chocolate tradition — a tradition with deep Sephardic roots.

Amsterdam: The Chocolate Capital

Amsterdam in the seventeenth century was the most tolerant city in Europe for Jews. Portuguese Sephardic Jews who arrived there could finally practice their religion openly — and they could also practice their trades, including chocolate making.

The Jewish community of Amsterdam became closely associated with the chocolate industry. Jewish merchants imported cacao from their trading connections in the Caribbean and South America. Jewish artisans developed techniques for processing it. By the eighteenth century, chocolate was a significant Jewish industry in Amsterdam.

This connection extended to other Dutch Jewish communities and to Jewish settlements in the Dutch Caribbean colonies — Curaçao, Suriname, and the Dutch Antilles — where Jews were involved in cacao cultivation and processing at every stage, from plantation to cup.

The Gelt Tradition

Perhaps no single item better captures the Jewish-chocolate connection than Hanukkah gelt — the chocolate coins wrapped in gold and silver foil that appear every December in Jewish homes around the world.

The gelt tradition has layers. The original practice involved giving actual coins to children during Hanukkah — a custom documented in Eastern Europe by at least the seventeenth century. The money was often earmarked for the children’s teachers, a practice called dmei Hanukkah (Hanukkah money).

The transition from real coins to chocolate coins happened in the early twentieth century, likely in America, where Jewish candy manufacturers saw an opportunity to create a child-friendly version of the tradition. Loft’s, a New York candy company with Jewish ownership, is sometimes credited with popularizing chocolate gelt.

The connection to the Maccabees adds historical resonance. After the Maccabees reclaimed the Temple and established the Hasmonean dynasty, they minted their own coins — the first Jewish coins in history. These coins, stamped with menorahs and other Jewish symbols, represented political sovereignty and religious freedom. Giving coins on Hanukkah connects to this history of Jewish self-determination.

Today, Hanukkah gelt is manufactured by dozens of companies worldwide. The quality ranges from barely-chocolate discs wrapped in foil (the kind that crumble into sad brown fragments the moment you unwrap them) to artisanal chocolate coins from premium manufacturers. Either way, they remain a beloved and essential part of Hanukkah celebration.

Bartons, Elite, and the Kosher Chocolate Revolution

The twentieth century saw the rise of specifically Jewish chocolate companies that served the kosher market — and in some cases, broke into the mainstream.

Bartons Bonbonniere was a New York institution. Founded in 1938 by a Viennese Jewish immigrant named Stephen Klein, Bartons became the go-to brand for kosher chocolate in America. Their stores were fixtures in Jewish neighborhoods, and their holiday gift boxes — for Hanukkah, Purim, and Passover — were omnipresent. Bartons also became famous for its Passover chocolate, navigating the complex kashrut requirements of a holiday that prohibits leavened grain (and, for Ashkenazi Jews, certain other ingredients).

Elite became Israel’s iconic chocolate brand. Founded in 1933 in Ramat Gan by Latvian Jewish immigrants, Elite produced chocolate that became synonymous with Israeli childhood. Elite’s chocolate bars, chocolate spread, and instant coffee (café Elite) were staples in every Israeli home. The company’s Para brand cow-shaped chocolate was — and remains — as recognizable in Israel as Hershey’s is in America.

The kosher chocolate market has expanded enormously. Today, major international brands like Lindt, Ghirardelli, and Godiva offer kosher-certified products. Artisanal kosher chocolatiers produce truffles, bonbons, and bars that rival anything in the non-kosher world. And the Passover chocolate market — once a wasteland of waxy carob-flavored substitutes — has improved dramatically, with premium options that taste like actual chocolate.

Chocolate in Jewish Ritual and Culture

Chocolate has woven itself into Jewish celebrations beyond Hanukkah gelt. Some modern haroset recipes — the sweet paste eaten at the Passover seder to symbolize the mortar used by Israelite slaves — incorporate chocolate, particularly in Latin American Jewish communities where cacao is abundant.

Purim mishloach manot (gift baskets sent to friends) almost always include chocolate. Shabbat dessert tables frequently feature chocolate cake. And the kiddush reception after Saturday morning services — which in some American synagogues has evolved into a full buffet — invariably includes chocolate something.

The Jewish relationship with chocolate is also a story of kashrut innovation. Chocolate manufacturers have had to navigate questions about dairy equipment, emulsifiers derived from animal fats, insect contamination (a concern with raw cacao), and Passover ingredients. Each challenge has driven innovation in kosher food science.

A Global Sweet Tooth

Today, Jewish communities around the world maintain their own chocolate traditions. Sephardic Jews make chocolate-infused desserts with Middle Eastern flavors — cardamom, rosewater, tahini. Ashkenazi bakers produce chocolate babka, chocolate rugelach, and chocolate-dipped mandelbrot. Israeli chocolatiers combine local ingredients — halvah, dates, pomegranate — with premium chocolate to create distinctly Israeli confections.

The story of Jews and chocolate is, at its heart, a story about adaptation. Expelled from Spain, converso merchants found a new commodity in the New World and brought it to Europe. Barred from guilds, Jewish artisans created their own chocolate industries. Keeping kosher, Jewish manufacturers developed new techniques and products. At every turn, limitation sparked creativity.

And at every turn, the result was sweet. Sweet like Hanukkah gelt on a cold December night. Sweet like Bartons bonbons in a gift box. Sweet like Israeli chocolate melting in the Middle Eastern heat. Sweet like a tradition that spans five centuries and every continent where Jews have made their home.