Late on Shabbat afternoon, a few entrepreneurial conference participants listened to some words of wisdom from Noah Alper who, until he sold his kosher bagel shops in 1996, had been the largest kosher retailer in the United States.  Beginning in the late 1980’s, Noah’s Bagels had helped take what had once been an ethnic specialty – bagels – and make them the normative cuisine in areas of the country that had rarely seen any Jews.

But even from the start of his career, Noah was used to blazing trails.  He shared a story of when he was one of six entrepreneurs waiting early one cold January morning at the Logan airport cargo pick-up.  Those entrepreneurs had pooled their resources to have fresh organic vegetables shipped in from California.  Although today organic produce is widely available, in 1973, when he co-founded the natural foods grocery store Bread and Circus, there were only a handful of stores in the Boston area that sold organic and fresh.

As part of Noah’s business model he ensured that he employed several Jewish values in his work such as maintaining a socially responsible bottom line (like collecting tzedukah and encouraged his employees to do community service) as well as maintaining an economic bottom line.  During his presentation he advised participants that before they started any business that they needed to do a real analysis of their market.  “Real passion for the product makes for a better business,” he said, but a “gut feel” is simply not enough for success.

And despite his success, Noah had also experienced some less-than-successful ventures (such as a brief attempt at selling Israeli gifts and food products) through Noah’s Bagels he was able to bring unapologetically Jewish bagels to the West Coast.  He even served bagels to then President Clinton!   He is now writing a memoir of his experiences, The Golden Ring, Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Entrepreneur, which is due out late this summer.