The History of Kleinblatt Bakery goes back to 1903
That year Joseph Elimelech Rosenfeld and his (second) wife Golda Kleinblatt opened a bakery in Krakow, Poland. The couple had three daughters, including Ryfka, who will marry Hirsch Kleinblatt.
In the early 1920s three Kleinblatt brothers, Abraham, Moishè and Hirsch (from a related family branch) left Poland to settle in Antwerp. Hirsch and his wife Ryfka set up a bakery there at Wipstraat 11.
The brothers Abraham and Moishè prefer to try their luck in the diamond business. But after the stock market crash of 1929 they also got involved in the bakery. It prospered so well that in 1931 it moved to the Provinciestraat 206 where it still is located today.
In 1934 Hirsch Kleinblatt died and in 1937 his widow Ryfka Rosenfeld remarried with Jakob Wendum.
The Second World War was a painful period and the Kleinblatt family was not spared. The bakery had to shut its doors in August 1942.
The Germans cleared everything out. The family went underground at various addresses at home and abroad.
Some family members were captured and deported. They never came back.
On the liberation of Antwerp Ryfka Rosenfeld and her second husband returned to the bakery, which they successfully restarted.
Moishè Kleinblatt returns from England. Sick and very weak, he dies in 1953.
Other survivors of the decimated family come from Poland and find refuge and / or work in the bakery.
Golda Kleinblatt, the daughter of Hirsch and Regina, lost her first husband in the war. She married Kurt Maneles, with whom she moved to Canada to seek happiness. They returned to the bakery in the mid-1950s and together they built the Kleinblatt bakery into a booming business.
Today, the Kleinblatt bakery is run by the Kleinblatt, Maneles and Korenblit families. The directors are Henry Maneles and Dan Korenblit, and they employ some 20 members of staff. Kleinblatt is famous not only for its breads and pastries but also for its pralines, party cakes, ice cream and pasta. The bakery supplies its products to around 20 other shops in Antwerp and Brussels. Its kosher pasta is even exported abroad to places such as London and Paris.
