Like many couples, Ken and Lucia Schnitzer, owner’s of Luci’s Healthy Marketplace in Phoenix, have a story to tell. But the amount of tragedy that has befallen them recently goes so far beyond any Hollywood film that no one would ever believe it was true. There’s no way that two people could suffer so much and yet come out of it all with a smile and a success story.
Act One: A Study in Character
Ken Schnitzer could have been described in many different ways about a dozen years ago – Zionist, political activist and eligible bachelor. Back then he was driving a Porsche Cayenne, trolling the Scottsdale bar scene and meeting lots of interesting women. But Ken wanted to meet someone who had similar interests. “I was struggling with Jewish girls,” Ken says. “Secular Jews are interested in every possible thing about you, except Juda- ism.”
A Phoenix native, Ken had long been active in the Jewish community. During college he joined the Jewish fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu and served as a counselor for special needs campers at Camp Ramah in California. After college he be- came politically involved in helping run local campaigns. He was a longtime Phoenix board member of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), serving first as chair of the Phoenix AIPAC Leadership 2000 Board. He was a member of CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leader- ship). In 2000 – the same year he and his brother David pur- chased their parents’ Custom Food Service – he joined Young Israel of Phoenix, an Orthodox shul that embraces Jews at all levels of observance. Judaism was becoming an ever more integral part of his life, and he wanted the same in a partner. Lucia (often called Luci) is a pastor’s daughter of Hispanic descent. She was raised by her mother and stepfather from a young age – both of them nondenominational Christian mis- sionaries. But Lucia had questions.
“I questioned my religion; so much so that when I was 18, I left home, and I left my parents’ church.”
This was the first step in what would become a 12-year journey to find her faith. The quest led her in early 2000 to take a religion class where she learned about Judaism, to which she felt an inexorable draw. One day, she asked her professor how she could learn more about the Jewish faith. “And she said, ‘Well, you are either born into it or you marry into it,’” Lucia recalls.
Act Two: The Trial by Fire(s)
Lucia and Ken met in 2002 at an art store in Scottsdale. “I helped manage an art gallery in the mall, and he was there – not shopping for clothes, but rather the women,” Lucia says, smiling. Instantly smitten, Ken struck up a conversation. When he told her he was Jewish, she said, “Oh, that’s cool. … I think I have some Judaism in my family, and we got lost; I think we’re Moroccan or Spanish.” They kept talking about Judaism and forged a bond, mostly as friends, then Lucia became employee for Ken’s company. After visiting a synagogue and seeing a Torah for the first time, she felt so connected she wanted to learn more. After taking classes, she decided she had to convert to Judaism. It was an arduous process to convert with an Orthodox Beit Din (court of three judges). She has since tutored other women through the Orthodox conversion process and has lectured on the importance of a streamlined Orthodox conversion process.
Lucia’s conversion was not what her professor had described. It took several years and continued after Ken and Lucia parted ways. Two things brought her clarity. The first was when Lucia and her grandmother talked about the history of the family. “I had asked my grandma if there was any Jewish anything in our family.” Her grandmother replied, “I was born Catholic, I will die Catholic.’” Yet she gave Lucia’s conversion her blessing. “She said Jesus is a Jew and it’s OK with her,” Lucia recalls. Two years after that, when Lucia had converted and mar- ried, Lucia’s grandmother said, “I think you should know that we have Jews in our family.” Lucia was floored. Her grandmother told her, “My mother’s families were both from Morocco and they were Arabic Jews” – “that’s the term she used.”
The second moment of clarity occurred after the two broke up. Ken moved to Israel, and Lucia moved to Chicago, where she immersed herself in a very strict Orthodox Jewish community to finish her conversion. While in Israel Ken visited an online Orthodox Jewish dating site and was shocked to find Lucia there and knew that meant her conversion was complete. After a conversation, he knew he had to get back together with her. “I think that’s my claim to fame – I just don’t give up. I’m pretty relentless,” Ken says. How was he able to convince her to give him another chance?
“I pulled the card,” he says. “There’s one day a year that we repent and ask for forgiveness, and I asked her to forgive me.” It was the High Holidays. Initially, she says, “I wouldn’t respond.” But with Ken’s Yom Kippur request, Lucia says, “As a Jew, you’re supposed to forgive and accept that.” That’s exactly what she did. With Lucia’s Orthodox conversion complete, the couple were married at the Chabad of Phoenix by Rabbi Zalman Levertov. Then, shortly after the birth of their first child, tragedy and coincidence struck.
David, Ken’s brother and business partner, is married to Linda, who was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer about the time Lucia had their first child. Shortly thereafter, while breastfeeding, Lucia noticed something different. “I thought it was a clogged milk duct,” she says. Soon she noticed a lump in that same breast, and fear gripped the couple. Ken says they felt like “this couldn’t happen twice.” Initially the radiology clinic did not want to do an ultrasound and mammogram since Lucia was breastfeeding. The couple was told it was most likely a clogged milk duct. But true to form, Ken demanded that they do the imaging and would not take no for an answer. Unfortunately the test results showed Lucia had an aggressive form of breast cancer, and she had to begin treatment right away. Meanwhile, her sister-in-law Linda was going through treatment. “She was finishing chemo and I was starting chemo,” Lucia says. “It was crazy.” Both women are survivors today and feel closer because of the bond, though the process was definitely not one they would like to repeat.
Meanwhile, Ken had a dream to start a new business ven- ture that he wanted to pursue. Lucia was initially against it. But being the understanding woman she is, Lucia eventually fully embraced and supported her husband. Appropriately and at the suggestion of Ken’s mother, Nadine, the quirky shop was named Luci’s Healthy Marketplace. Ken calls it a tribute to Lucia’s brave battle with cancer. It’s a coffee shop/market/restaurant on the corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road that offers a great place to hang out and chat with friends or enjoy some healthy food. “We try to be a local hub, but we’ve built something a little unique here,” he says. “It’s kinda food, kinda market, kinda coffee bar – so it’s kind of this mishmash.” The business opened March 22, 2009. While Ken was learning the ropes, the place attracted quite a few customers and things were looking hopeful. Then there was the fire.
On July 17 of that year – just three and a half months after they opened – a fire broke out two suites down from Luci’s. It was 118 degrees outside, the wind was blowing toward Luci’s and things just got worse.
“There literally ended up with fire trucks everywhere and about 85 firefighters, and they’re on our roof just blasting it, trying to stop it because it already hit the [neighboring suite] and it was on our wall and they couldn’t stop it,” Ken says. Determined to save his new business, he rushed into the burning building to pull the drawers from the registers and thankfully made it out alive.
With more than $400,000 in damages, it would take time for things to get back to normal. But when horrible things happen to the Schnitzers, they take them in stride. The fire gave them a fresh start – the opportunity to start over with a clean slate using the knowledge they had gained from the first opening. Three months later they reopened with a full kitchen menu and an inventory that was more appealing to their customers. The rebuilt business works and works well.
Act Three: The Move Forward
For most couples, any one of these situations would spell failure. The arduous conversion process, cancer, starting a new business and then almost watching it burn to the ground is more than most people could take. But for Ken and Lucia, it just fused them together. Tightly. “Ken had, he had his dream, he had a vision and he didn’t let anything stop him,” Lucia says. “You know, if anything, it gave him strength and it gave him more purpose. Seeing his wife, almost losing his wife, we had a little baby – I mean, that was very hard for him.” Ken saw it differently at the time. “I went from a fun single guy to all this crap … and you question, you know, you question G-d. I’m trying to do the right thing here!” They persevered.
And now Ken tells his single male friends, “Your life and priorities change when you get married. I was driving a Porsche, now I share a dented gold minivan with my wife. You’ll be a better man for it.” He considers his new life a welcome change from his life before marriage and children. He likes to share that change with others and, to that end he has set up seven Jewish and two non-Jewish couples over the years. On the personal side, the couple now has four children – Aviva Chaya, 7; Bentzion Hertzel, 3; Gavriel Natan, 2; and Yasmina Ashira, 3 months. Aviva is in first grade at the Phoenix Hebrew Academy, and Bentzion attends Aleph Bet Preschool at the Phoenix Chabad. Ken and Lucia were the 2012 Chabad of Arizona annual dinner honorees.
On the business side of life, Luci’s is busier than ever. They’ve made a name for themselves by serving high-quality food to the masses, as well as making sure that there are gluten-free options and foods without high-fructose corn syrup on their shelves. They want to keep the genetically modified foods off their floors and deliver comfort foods with good, healthy ingredients. They’ve received some local accolades. Arizona Foothills Magazine recently named Luci’s Healthy Marketplace the Best Cup of Coffee and the Best Grocery Store.
Although they are shomer Shabbat, they are able to keep the market open on Shabbat and Jewish holidays thanks to a halachic contract crafted by Rabbi Leverton of Chabad of Phoenix and Rabbi Reuven Mann of Young Israel. On the holidays, Luci’s becomes the sole property of Jerry Mansoor, a non-Jew who is a part owner of the business. “Over the holidays and Sabbath, we technically don’t own it. All the profits go to Jerry under Jewish law,” says Ken, adding it’s important to have a non-Jewish partner you can trust.
With their family core complete, the couple plans to expand Luci’s by adding a wine bar. And if something comes along to change their plan, it’s OK, they’ll figure it out. “Part of our story is that we don’t give up,” Ken says. “You love the people you love, you have faith in your religion, you have faith that hopefully good things happen in your life. Everyone has obstacles they go through – like you do, we do. And you just … you’ve gotta keep pressing ahead. Just keep trying and keep trying, just don’t give up.”
