When you walk down South Street in Philadelphia, you might notice a nondescript black window wrap on the glass around a second floor unit above a Mexican-Italian fusion restaurant.
On that window wrap are the letters “JSB,” with a marijuana leaf dotting the “J” and the negative space in the “B” made out of a Star of David.
You may be intrigued by what this could be. A business combining Judaism and marijuana? A community organization? A passion project?
Will Edelstein founded Jewish Sauce Boss, and for him, it’s all of these things. While JSB primarily serves as a certification site for potential medical marijuana users who need to obtain a license, it offers a lot more, too.
Take for example a formative event in Edelstein’s journey with Jewish Sauce Boss. He was invited to come speak to a room of Holocaust survivors about the benefits of the cannabis plant.
“I brought a doctor, I brought a certified physician with me, I brought an expert on CBD and hemp with me,” Edelstein said.
Edelstein began by discussing the benefits of the plant, along with his colleagues. He spoke about medical marijuana that’s potent in THC, the active ingredient that causes a high, as well as the more benign products that are high in the chemical CBD, which offer the health benefits of cannabis without a drug high. He also talked about hemp, which is the form of marijuana without THC that is grown and used for products in the same way bamboo or cotton is.
The group was receptive to his presentation. Soon, he found himself giving an older survivor CBD cream. She liked it, as did her peers, but they weren’t satisfied.
“They asked me if I had the real stuff in the car,” he laughed.
This is emblematic of what Edelstein wants JSB to be, and why he got into the business.
JSB offers consultations for medical licenses, and its website describes them as a “independent new-media lifestyle platform.” Down the road, Edelstein said he hopes to produce Jewish Sauce Boss-branded marijuana products, whatever those may be. All of this may sound busy, but it amounts to one thing: a community of people who want to destigmatize marijuana use, as well as take Jewish values into a burgeoning industry.
“I gave my whole life for this. When I [started], everyone told me I was going to ruin my life. That I was going to get in trouble. Anyone I was close to, that was their initial reaction,” Edelstein said, after starting JSB in 2017. “What I’ve learned over time is that [that reaction] is usually a great indication that you need to go and do the thing [that you want to]. And that’s what I set out to do, and I’ve gotten the chance to meet amazing, amazing human beings.”
Medical marijuana was legalized in Pennsylvania in 2016, but recreational use remains illegal, even though some of the commonwealth’s largest cities have decriminalized it, Philadelphia included.
Right now, business is booming for Jewish Sauce Boss and Edelstein, who said that the benefits of obtaining a medical card are vast. The company provides resources, support and education for people who are interested in medical marijuana in Pennsylvania but don’t know where to start. It also has a telemedicine platform that offers online consultations and visits.
Edelstein said that, for now, the company isn’t interested in shifting to the adult-use recreational business. He’s a big believer in the Jewish tenet of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. In that vein, he believes that medical marijuana offers important relief.
“In Pennsylvania, in my opinion, we have a medical marijuana program that is one of the best in the country. You can get affordable products. You can get access to high-potency products. You have protections with your medical card that you wouldn’t have as a consumer buying [recreational marijuana],” he said.
He said that in addition to the benefits that the marijuana provides, the medical card is a worthy investment for people who have the conditions it is meant to alleviate.
“[If you buy recreationally] you are going to pay more and you are going to get hit in the head with taxes,” he said. “Maybe it’s smart to spend $100 to $200 on a medical card and then pay almost half the price for your products.”
For Edelstein, a typical Jewish upbringing didn’t result in an immediate passion for his heritage. He recalled being eight years old and being told by his father that he couldn’t stop going to Hebrew school until his bar mitzvah.
“When you’re eight years old, [another] five years is like your whole life,” he laughed.
He always celebrated Jewish holidays and gathered with his family for lifecycle events, but he didn’t feel a passion for Judaism until he reached a professional and personal wall.
Struggling to find his identity while working a normal job, Edelstein came up with a concept — a concept that would express loudly and proudly exactly who he was, and have a mission to back that up.
With that, Jewish Sauce Boss was formed.
The first word refers to his heritage and the source of his values, while the second is a head-nod to a term used for marijuana when it was fully illegal and stigmatized. Boss is self-explanatory: Edelstein was done taking orders from others and he was ready to work on some ideas of his own.
“It was a play on words, a play on culture, and it garnered attention,” he said. “People were captivated, and it allows me to be here seven years later.”