Tablet Magazine - a new read on Jewish life

Growing up in the Syrian community in Brooklyn, Jack Hazan felt like an outlier in most situations. According to his family, he should have been attending a Jewish school, planning to get married and have children, and taking over the family business. Instead, labeled as hyperactive, he was bouncing from school to school, and figuring out that he was gay. After years of trying to discover who he really was and where he fit in, he eventually found his way in the kitchen. “I always found cooking and baking to be my creative outlet,” said Hazan. “It’s where I got my energy out. Some people would play basketball, some people would play in the park, but I would go to the kitchen and apply what I observed.” Inspired by his aunt Dina, Hazan decided to pursue becoming a licensed therapist. During school, he started baking challah to help pay his bills (thanks to his aunt Brenda’s recipe). He attended a Shabbat dinner at the Kabbalah Center in New York, and brought some of his homemade challah so that he wouldn’t have to eat the store-bought challah being served. Much to his surprise, Madonna was at the same dinner, tasted his challah, and loved it. It was soon after that Hazan created his baking business, Jack Bakes....

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