Fig roll pastries have been with us for many years, going all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Advances in baking allowed the fig roll pastry to have a longer shelf life and become popular in the Mediterranean region. Much can be said of the early sailors and traders who assisted in the popularity that the fig newton now enjoys, but we owe a debt of gratitude to a 16th century Jewish fig farmer named Moshe Nuhtan.

Moshe Nuhtan was a successful entrepreneur and prolific trader.

Nuhtan lived in Syria under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1500’s. Few documents have survived the years in order to show us exactly how Nuhtan discovered the fig pastry roll. However, we can make an educated guess from the surviving records that his introduction was likely through one of the thousands of trades he made in his thirty years as a trader. After spending more than half of his life trading, Moshe decided to farm figs and produce fig roll pastries, which had always been a Syrian import – never an export. Within five years he perfected the fig pastry roll and became known in the area as ‘Fig.’ The fig pastry rolls made by ‘Fig’ Nuhtan quickly became an international success.

In all, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life on his fig farm farming figs as fig farmers did in those days. On April 6, 1563 Moshe died in a tragic fig farming accident, but his legacy would live on. Friends and family left their fields to make sure that the world would be able to experience Nuhtan’s fig pastry rolls. Today his empire continues to be a worldwide success. His line of fig roll pastries still bears his name – Fig Newton.