WEST HARTFORD – In time for Rosh Hashanah, the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford will pay tribute to West Hartford’s popular Crown Market with a special program to be held Monday, Sept. 8, 27 p.m., in the university’s Wilde Auditorium. The program is free and open to the public.

Founded in 1940 by Sam Smith, Sam Sowalsky and Meyer Goldfield, the Crown was originally a group of concessions operating within a store located on Albany Avenue between Magnolia and Irving Streets in Hartford. Eventually, the store relocated to Bishop’s Corner in West Hartford. Last winter, when the store was on the verge of shutting its doors, a group of community investors and supporters and saved the store from going out of business.

Now, the Greenberg Center will honor both the Crown Market – which many consider to be a key component of the area’s Jewish community – and those who banded together to save it. The Sept. 8 program will include a short video history of the Crown, a visit from the store’s Mark Seltzer, as well as food tastings and reflections.

The Center will also take the opportunity to welcome back the University of Hartford’s new Hillel director, Jason Oruch.