Teaneck—Herring, the classic Kiddush dish, is being celebrated on motzei Shabbat of December 14^th at the Bergen County Herring Festival. The festival, hosted by Netivot Shalom at 811 Palisade Ave. from 8:30-11:00 p.m., will showcase a wide variety of herring, vodka and single malt scotch.

To go with the wide variety of herring, there will be samplings of smoked salmon, roe, bread, olives, potatoes, beets and hard boiled eggs—a shtetl menu prepared in traditional Finlandian style. Grand and Essex, Ma’adan and a surprise third vendor are all participating in the event, which is being hailed as “an evening perfect for aficionados and newcomers alike.”

This will be the third Herring Festival hosted at Netivot Shalom; the event has been biannual since 2009. Three Netivot Shalom members, Jonathan Shore, Noah Rothblatt and Barry Herzog, decided to try it out after reading about a herring festival in a New Yorker article. The response the first year—95 attendees, a number which has since grown to read 115—blew them away.

Tickets are $50 if purchased before Dec.10 and $60 if purchased afterwards. Ten percent of all profits will be donated to the Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corp.

“We decided that even though the event is a fundraiser for our shul, we decided to do something not just for our own neck of the woods, but also for our general community,” Shore said, noting that the previous two events were fundraisers for the local Mikvahs and to help with Yeshiva tuition affordability.

For more information, email herringfestival_gmail.com. To make a reservation, send a check in to Noah Rothblatt at 206 Cedar Lane, Apt. 4D in Teaneck, NJ.

By Aliza Chasan