About Emma

Emma Abramovitz was a young American woman growing up in Brooklyn in the 1920s, the daughter of Jewish immigrants who came to America seeking a better life. Like many girls, she finished her schooling early and took a job to help support her family. But Emma had 
something different in mind. She had watched her mother, Bessie, make her crunchy  mandelbread for as long as she could remember. Emma began to experiment with her own take on mandelbread—shortening the bake time, trying new ingredients, and aiming for Something Different, Something Better, Something Modern-American—and she came up with ”Mondelbrot.” 

Emma grew up in crazy times: new machines, new technology and, for her parents, a new country. As Emma, her brother Harry and her sisters Fay and Edith grew up, they experienced a world changing at a pace never seen before—widespread use of electricity, radios, moving pictures, automobiles, mass transit and vaccines. Not unlike today, they experienced discrimination, a pandemic, economic boom and bust, as well as the rise of fascism. 

Mondelbrot, for Emma, was not just “a slice of heaven,” as her older brother Harry used to say; it was a thread connecting her to her parents and family and a step forward into something new. She began selling her creations through word of mouth, then from a pushcart and eventually out of a store with her husband, Sam Horowitz. As the business grew, the heart of it remained the same: a determined, young American woman with a vision, who strived to create something wonderful of her own, in a baffling world full of hardships. Today, Emma’s Mixed-Up Mondelbrot is a tribute to Emma and a celebration of her spirit—a little unconventional and always full of love.