{"id":294620,"date":"2026-09-26T19:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/294620\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T19:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:10:07","slug":"shoresh-turns-a-former-greenfield-bank-into-a-coffee-shop-and-jewish-learning-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/294620\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoresh turns a former Greenfield bank into a coffee shop and Jewish learning center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every so often, someone still shows up to the old First National Bank in Greenfield with a check to deposit.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lady wandered in about an hour ago and was like, \u2018Is this a bank?\u2019\u00a0\u201d said Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman.<\/p>\n

It happens enough that he and Frances Lasday taped a sign on the door reading \u201cTHIS IS NOT A BANK,\u201d above an image of surrealist Ren\u00e9 Magritte\u2019s famously captioned pipe, \u201cCeci n\u2019est pas une pipe\u201d (\u201cThis is not a pipe\u201d).<\/p>\n

The confusion is understandable. By early next year, the brick building at 4300 Murray Ave. will still resemble a bank but will have become something else entirely: a hybrid coffee shop and Jewish learning space called Shoresh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By day, Shoresh will be a weekday coffee shop selling drinks and kosher baked goods. <\/p>\n

By evening, it will double as a space for Talmud and Hebrew classes and community gatherings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dual-use organization: a Jewish education program that\u2019s also running a coffee shop or a coffee shop that also serves as a Jewish educational space,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n

Both Greenfield residents, Shoresh co-founders Goodman and Lasday knew firsthand that the neighborhood has lacked a coffee shop since Staghorn Garden Cafe closed in 2020.<\/p>\n

In Greenfield Community Association surveys conducted in 2023 and 2024, a coffee shop or cafe was overwhelmingly the most requested business, mentioned by 61% of respondents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. to sit down and eat and drink and meet up with a friend,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n

Though run by a rabbi and Jewish educator, Shoresh is intended as a neighborhood space beyond its religious programming, with plans for community meetings, book clubs and potentially coworking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to be for this community,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cWe want to be a resource that they can feel like they can come in and grab a cup of coffee and hang out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Goodman, 49, the concept for Shoresh has been \u201cpercolating,\u201d he joked, for \u201csomewhere between five and 20 years,\u201d back to when he became a rabbi.<\/p>\n

Describing himself as \u201ca bit of an odd duck,\u201d Goodman<\/a> has served congregations from Huntington Beach, Calif. \u2014 where his synagogue was close enough that \u201cyou could hit the beach with a rock\u201d \u2014 to Steamboat Springs, Colo., where the former ski instructor led \u201cski with the rabbi\u201d outings.<\/p>\n

Goodman identifies with Conservative Judaism but has long aligned himself with its progressive wing. As a rabbinical student, he organized in support of ordaining openly gay, bisexual and lesbian rabbis, a policy the Conservative movement adopted around the time of his ordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI very much like to meet people where they\u2019re at,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cI\u2019m very informal. I don\u2019t wear a suit, and I never wear a tie. I feel like God is present when you are down to earth with people in all situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

After moving to Pittsburgh eight years ago, Goodman met Lasday through local Jewish programming. The two worked together on a grant-funded monthly gathering for Jewish adults before Goodman approached her about Shoresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018It\u2019s been great working with you. You\u2019re really talented and smart. How would you like to go in on this crazy idea with me?\u2019\u00a0\u201d Goodman recalled. \u201cSo I went in search of a big donor, and I wound up with Frances instead, which is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lasday, whose Pittsburgh family roots go back at least two generations, also describes herself as \u201cmostly an educator.\u201d Her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 ranges from teaching about climate change while living on an \u201cupside-down school bus that ran on vegetable oil\u201d to a middle school science classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole time, I have been building community wherever I go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lasday, 32, grew up in the pluralistic Jewish youth movement, which she said left her comfortable in \u201clots of different Jewish spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of ways to be Jewish in this world, and everyone\u2019s just figuring out what works for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At first glance, a coffee shop doubling as a pluralistic Jewish learning center might seem like a 21st-century invention, but Goodman sees it as a case of everything old is new again.<\/p>\n

Shoresh\u2019s tagline is \u201ca well-\u00adcaffeinated shtibl,\u201d a Yiddish word meaning \u201clittle room\u201d or \u201clittle house\u201d that refers to a small, informal place for Jewish prayer and gathering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the old days, going back 200, 300 years, the Jewish community created a class or prayer space (by going) to the local dry goods store or the general store or the butcher shop,\u201d Goodman said. After hours, \u201cthey would push all the tables off to the side, and set up for prayer and study.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike large, formal synagogues, shtibls were smaller and more intimate, often with prayer led by laypeople.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were scalable and low-cost, and we\u2019ve kind of gotten away from that,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n

Shoresh adapts that model in another way: Rather than relying on synagogue-style membership dues, the founders hope coffee sales will help cover the building\u2019s rent and utilities. Goodman took inspiration from a similar concept called Lehrhaus<\/a>, a nonprofit Jewish tavern, restaurant and \u201chouse of learning,\u201d in Somerville, Mass.<\/p>\n

The name Shoresh, derived from the Hebrew word for \u201croot\u201d or \u201csource,\u201d also points to his interest in Hasidic teachings about returning things to their spiritual origins.<\/p>\n

Classes, events and holiday gatherings \u2014 including Shoresh\u2019s first simcha (celebration), a bris for a Greenfield neighbor, and a recent Yom Kippur service \u2014 are already underway as the organization continues its build-out and fundraising.<\/p>\n

As singular as Shoresh may be, its Pittsburgh building renovations are not.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s still an old bank,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n

The former teller area is being demolished to make room for an L-shaped coffee bar, while the founders have searched Facebook Marketplace for someone interested in buying the old safe-deposit boxes.<\/p>\n

Downstairs, they plan to keep the bank vault, though they may remove its massive door \u2014 no one remembers the combination \u2014 and turn the space into another classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy theory on this place is that it was very much a pass-through,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cIt was very analog. Everything was run with a series of envelopes and drawers and keys.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not theology, construction or even city permitting that worries Shoresh\u2019s founders the most: It\u2019s learning to make a good cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want our quality to be amazing,\u201d Lasday said. \u201cI want to be the best coffee shop in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Goodman have been practicing on an Italian-made home espresso machine \u2014 tamping beans and using the steam wand \u2014 with a taped-up guide showing the proportions of espresso and milk needed for drinks like cappuccinos. They\u2019re still shopping for the right commercial machine, have consulted a friend from De Fer Coffee & Tea and are looking for a cafe manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joke is we know how to run an organization, how to teach Jewish classes, how to do fundraising, how to work with people \u2014 we just don\u2019t know a lot about the coffee industry,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably easier to teach a barista how to be a rabbi than a rabbi how to be a barista.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every so often, someone still shows up to the old First National Bank in Greenfield with a check…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-294620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}