How Rabbi Chaim and Nell Mahgel-Friedman Have Kept Berkeley’s Jewish Heart Beating for 19 Years

By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant

(small.news) — There is a particular kind of small business that a neighborhood does not know it cannot live without—until it almost loses it. Afikomen Judaica, tucked into Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, California, is that kind of business.

For 35 years, Afikomen has served as the East Bay’s go-to destination for Jewish ritual items, books, art, jewelry, and gifts. It is the place where a grandmother who knows almost nothing about Judaism comes in asking for help planning her grandson’s bar mitzvah, because she does not feel comfortable calling a synagogue she has never visited. It is where young Jewish couples rent a chuppah canopy for their wedding and purchase ritual items to celebrate holidays and life-cycle events for their growing family, year after year. These are not hypothetical customers. They are regulars.

“Local Judaica stores are where many Jews take the next step,” says Nell Mahgel-Friedman, who co-owns the shop with her husband, Rabbi Chaim Mahgel-Friedman. “Our storefront counters are where many Jews take that first step to connect with Jewish life and community.”

They Fired the Bosses

The story of how Nell and Chaim came to own Afikomen is, like many of the best small business stories, a combination of timing, audacity, and a complete underestimation of what they were walking into.

Chaim answered a help-wanted ad for a sales position at the shop in 2005. He had earned his rabbinic ordination in Israel, spent time in far-flung corners of the world, and returned to California in 2000. When he started working at Afikomen, he immediately felt that his knowledge and life experience were the right fit for the work. He rose from sales associate to book buyer and never looked back.

Nell, meanwhile, had studied physics and theatre arts at Humboldt State University before traveling to Israel to study Jewish texts and spirituality. She was in graduate school studying recreation and management when they began dreaming out loud about what they would do if they owned Afikomen.

In the summer of 2008, they stopped dreaming and acted. They bought the business from its original owners, Jerry Derblich and David Cooper. “We fired the bosses,” as they put it. They finalized the transfer of ownership in July 2008—two months after their second child was born. Their first purchase for the shop was a children’s playhouse. Eighteen years later, it is still a beloved fixture for younger visitors.

The Great Recession

What started as a dream quickly met reality. By the winter of 2008, it was clear that the economy was in serious trouble. Revenue fell short of expectations. Resources were stretched. The Great Recession had arrived, and two new small business owners with a newborn and a toddler found themselves navigating one of the worst economic downturns in modern American history.

They did not close. They adapted. Social media, online sales, events, prison sales, bookselling platforms, community partnerships, and local buying initiatives all became part of the toolkit. They used every resource available, developed every necessary skill, and leaned hard on the deep knowledge of Jewish life and learning that made them genuinely valuable to their community—not just as shopkeepers, but as resources for people at every stage of Jewish engagement.

In 2020, the pandemic brought a second reckoning. Afikomen responded by launching an online bookshop through bookshop.org, extending their reach to book lovers far beyond Berkeley. The physical store stayed connected to its community through every channel available.

Their determination and perseverance carried them through. That is an understatement.

More Than a Shop

What Nell and Chaim have built over eighteen years of ownership is not simply a retail operation. It is a cultural hub—a welcoming, inclusive space where people at every point on their Jewish journey feel comfortable walking through the door.

The shop’s curated selection reflects both the diversity of its customers and the owners’ artistic sensibility. Ritual items from Jewish artists worldwide sit alongside books, jewelry, gifts, and locally sourced products. Afikomen hosts events and community gatherings, serves as a venue for connection, and maintains deep partnerships with local institutions, including the Magnes Museum and the new campus of the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay.

The city of Berkeley has recognized Afikomen as a legacy business—a designation that reflects not just longevity but genuine embeddedness in the life of a community.

Buying Local is a Jewish Value

Nell has given an ELI Talk—a platform for inspired Jewish ideas—making the case that supporting local businesses is not just good economics. It is a Torah imperative.

Citing Leviticus, she argues that buying from within your community is a form of tzedakah—and not just any form. According to the medieval scholar Maimonides, the highest level of giving is supporting a business venture so that a person can be self-sufficient. By that measure, choosing to shop at a locally owned store rather than a chain or an online retailer is an act of applied Jewish wisdom.

“Buying local is a Torah imperative,” she says. “It is an active tzedakah, it is an enjoyable experience, and it is one easy, impactful change you can make.”

This belief now informs how Nell and Chaim think about their place in the broader ecosystem of local commerce—and it drew them to Silver Small Business, which they describe as inspiring them to see their enterprise as part of something much bigger than a single shop on Claremont Avenue.

The Lesson Behind 35 Years on Claremont Avenue

Nell and Chaim did not come to small business ownership through a traditional path. They came through passion, community, and a willingness to leap before they fully understood what they were leaping into. What has kept Afikomen alive through two recessions, a pandemic, and seventeen years of the ordinary difficulty of retail is not one single strategy. It is a combination of deep expertise, genuine community rootedness, relentless adaptability, and the conviction that what they do matters.

For small business owners navigating their own rough seas, Afikomen’s story reminds us that survival is often less about having the perfect plan and more about refusing to give up on the reason you started.

The doors are still open. The children’s playhouse is still there. And their community of happy customers continues to grow — please God, for many more years to come.

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