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Junior’s, NYC’s iconic Jewish cheesecake emporium, buys back guns to protect the city it loves Week on Tuesday, May 24, Rosen says he considered the buyback a success. “There’s now 69 less guns on the street,” he said. He also said he was touched by the small differences he felt the event made in the community and in individuals’ lives—a Julia Gergely grandmother who was able to finally, and safely, get rid of her grandson’s gun; (New York Jewish Week)—When Alan a young boy who turned in his toy gun Rosen, the third-generation owner of because he realized it was harmful. (He Junior’s Restaurant, read the headlines was paid $20, Rosen said.) back in April about a 12-year-old Brooklyn Rosen adds that, as a bastion of New boy who was shot and killed while eating York City—and Brooklyn, in particuin the backseat of a car, the only thing he lar—for more than seven decades, Junior’s could think was, “enough already.” feels obligated to give back and protect “I had limited options on what I the community as much as possible. “It could do—I’m in the restaurant busiwas worth all the money,” he said of the ness,” Rosen, 53, told the New York Jewish buyback event. “It may not be the most Week. “But I took it upon myself to do efficient way to solve gun violence issues, something. It was a tipping point.” but it’s what I can do right now.” So, in between his regular workday In a devastating twist, at the time of at the famous restaurant and cheesethe interview, the school shooting at Robb cake bakery—which includes overseeing Elementary in Uvalde, Texas was unfoldJunior’s original Downtown Brooklyn ing into a national tragedy. Nineteen location, as well as outposts in Midtown children and two teachers were gunned Manhattan and Foxwoods Casino— down in the attack. Rosen contacted the mayor’s office to see “As a parent of three, I’m devastated what he could do to help prevent gun that innocents were murdered yesterday,” violence. After several phone calls, he Rosen said during a follow-up conversawas connected with the NYPD, then New tion on Wednesday, May 25. “This is not a York Police Foundation and, eventually, political statement, by the way. It’s getting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. legal or illegal guns off the streets. Having Ultimately, Rosen and said that, no 18-year-old should Gonzalez collaborated on be able to buy an assault rifle. organizing a gun buyback Anyone who can’t agree to that event through the New York needs to rethink their beliefs.” guns were City Police Foundation. Rosen’s concerns come collected at (Initially, Rosen had wanted amid a wave of rising crime in the buyback to host the event in its uberthe city: One Sunday morning, retro Brooklyn location, a day after the gun buyback “before being informed that’s event, a man was shot dead on not how gun buybacks are run,” accordthe subway. “New York has seen enough,” ing to Grub Street, which broke the story.) Rosen said. In the end, the event was held Saturday, The New York Times reported in April May 21, at the Emmanuel Baptist Church that shootings in New York City rose in in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in the first quarter of 2022 to 296 incidents, Brooklyn. Rosen donated $20,000 in up from 260 during the same period last funds for the rewards; they offered $200 year. The trend reflects “continuing and and an iPad for working assault rifles and completely unacceptable violence in our handguns, and $25 for airguns. streets,” as Police Commissioner Keechant Speaking with the New York Jewish L. Sewell said in a briefing. (It’s worth
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noting, however, that while gun violence is up, homicides are down—and nowhere near the number they reached in the 1990s.) Though he officially grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, Rosen was practically raised at the restaurant at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues, which was founded in 1950 by his grandfather, Harry Rosen. In the 1950s, Junior’s served as a gathering place for Brooklynites of all ages, especially Dodgers fans hoping to catch a game at Ebbets Field. By the 1960s, Ebbets Field had been demolished, the Dodgers had decamped to Los Angeles and a significant chunk of Junior’s clientele had moved to suburbia—but Harry Rosen wasn’t deterred. He and a baker developed Junior’s signature cheesecake recipe, which rose in popularity across the city and kept Junior’s on the map. “I see it definitely as part of the Jewish tradition,” Alan Rosen says of the rich dairy dessert that made Junior’s famous. “I don’t think America identifies it as a Jewish dessert, but it has its roots there for sure. We came here from Eastern Europe. We brought our recipes to the Lower East Side and you know, we went from there.” Alan and his brother Kevin took over in the early 1990s, and under his leadership, the restaurant took flight. In 2000, he opened a second location in Grand Central Terminal, which was soon followed by locations in Times Square, the Barclays Center and at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. Rosen was also responsible for expanding Junior’s mail-order cheesecake business around the country, significantly propelled by his appearances on QVC and other national television shows. Despite the enormous growth and some menu expansions—Rosen’s father and uncle, Walter and Marvin, had adapted to accommodate customer tastes in the 1970s, like fried chicken and shrimp parmigiana—the recipe for the famous cheesecake has stayed exactly the same since it was first introduced in 1960.
“Besides the love, it’s cream cheese, it’s fresh eggs, it’s sugar, heavy cream and a touch of vanilla,” Rosen says. “It’s really not a secret. It’s how we blend it, it’s how we bake it, it’s how we take our time and make it in a water bath. It’s all of those little things combined.”
“It may not be the most efficient way to solve gun violence issues, but it’s what I can do right now.” Calling himself a “purist at heart,” Rosen says his favorite cheesecake flavor is the original. However, if he’s bringing home a cake for the weekend, he’ll often opt for the devil’s food, a plain cheesecake inside a chocolate layer cake, which has long been a family favorite. Rosen says he would “absolutely” hold a gun buyback event like this again, noting that having the Junior’s name attached helps get the word out there and generates more success. “I thought it was amazing,” he said. With nearly 70 guns turned in, the event collected two dozen more weapons than similar recent events, as Grub Street reported. “We are taught to do good things from early on in our lives,” Rosen says of how his Jewish identity inspired him, quickly adding that he doesn’t know if his commitment to his community is due to his and the restaurant’s Jewish roots, or if it is because of the sense of moral justice his parents instilled in him as a child. “There’s tons of ways to give charity or help your fellow man or woman,” says Rosen, who is a member of Temple Emanu-El in Harrison, New York. “Do I have that sort of bend to me because of my religion? Possibly. I think it’s more because of my upbringing. My mom, my dad, they made sure to tell me that you do good things for others when you’re fortunate.”
