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It's no shanda to be poor, as Tevye the milkman once noted.

But neither is it a great honor that some Bay Area Jews may be too poor to afford matzah this year since prices have nearly doubled in recent weeks from 1996 prices.

At San Francisco's Tel Aviv Strictly Kosher, customers say, "I can't keep my religion and afford this matzah. It's out of my means," butcher Sam Treistman reported. "They rant and rave because they can't afford it."

Then they walk out.

"It's frustrating because I'd like to help people, but I can't give my stuff away," Treistman said. And neither can his elderly regulars part with $12.50 for a 5-pound package.

While some area supermarkets are asking up to $19.99 for the same quantity, $12.50 may seem like a steal — that is until one looks outside the Bay Area to find that prices are drastically lower elsewhere. At Ralph's in Los Angeles, for example, a 5-pounder of Heritage matzot was priced at $1.99 this week, while the city's Lucky's stores were selling five pounds of Streit's matzot for $2.99. Some New York stores are giving them away with the purchase of $50 of kosher groceries.

"The bread-of-poverty is wearing mink this year," joked San Francisco's Rabbi Alan Lew of Congregation Beth Sholom.

Jokes aside, kosher customers and purveyors alike are seriously puzzled as to why the Bay Area in recent weeks, along with Arizona and south Florida, has become one of the priciest matzah markets in the United States. The Bay Area average hovers around $14 for a 5-pound box. South Floridians are paying about $13, and prices are about the same in Arizona.

"It's a really a shanda on a Jewish holiday for them to have [the price of] their products so high," said Gary Freeman of Oakland Kosher Foods. In the Bay Area, "We have [low-income] Russians. We have single parents on a tight budget. The rabbis call me and we work something out for these individuals. It's ridiculous."

Gary Cohn, executive director at San Francisco's Congregation Emanu-El, added that "indirectly, [the price increase] affects all of us."

His synagogue gave 40 struggling college congregants free gift packs of matzot plus macaroons, chocolates and other kosher edibles for the weeklong observance.

And social workers at the San Francisco Jewish Family and Children's Services say they've received more requests by seniors and families in need of Seder Sacks this year than in years past.

JFCS spokeswoman Ellen Newman said she doesn't know whether the price hike sparked the new demand, but "we're meeting the requests despite the higher cost."

While customers may be kvetching about the markup, grocers say plenty are willing to pay.

"You gotta have it," said Stonestown Petrini's manager Bill Moynihan. "It's like milk. They may raise the price to $4 a gallon but what are you going to do?"

Moynihan and others who purvey kosher products say they have no choice but to pass on the cost to customers. They can't slash retail prices and still cover the undisclosed wholesale price established by the only kosher distributor in the region, J. Sosnick & Son in South San Francisco. But one local grocer said his cost was just under $12 for a 5-pound box.

For most grocers, J. Sosnick, along with kosher giant Manischewitz, may be part of the problem. Because few Northern California Jews keep kosher year-round and because shelf space is always in demand, most supermarkets limit their kosher selections to those brands distributed by J. Sosnick. The distributor, in turn, offers a complete line of products, many of them made by Manischewitz.

Unfortunately for kosher customers, J. Sosnick and Manischewitz have effectively locked out would-be competitors. Manischewitz has agreed not to sell directly to Northern California stores if J. Sosnick agrees not to sell outside of the region, the supplier admitted this week.

General manager Jeff Sosnick says he has not raised prices any more than in years past, and that high freight costs justify this year's 8 percent increase. But with 5-pound boxes selling for $8 to $10 last Passover, according to Bay Area merchants, this year's prices reflect a far higher retail markup.

J. Sosnick was not the only distributor to raise wholesale matzah prices. In Southern California, one supplier was selling a 5-pound box for about $13.60, which would indicate similarly high shelf prices. But instead, L.A. supermarkets are taking a loss on the sale of matzah in hopes of luring Jewish customers.

"It's the forces of capitalism," explained J. Sosnick co-owner Robert Sosnick. "You're dealing with a marketplace down there of more than 1 million Jews. You have big chains in heavy Jewish neighborhoods. A million potential consumers is a big drawing card.

"You really don't have a Jewish neighborhood in San Francisco."

Locally, the Sosnick-Manischewitz agreement hasn't stopped other manufacturers from trying to get a larger piece of the matzah market, but so far none has succeeded, said New York matzahmaker Mel Gross of Streit's.

"The Bay Area is my biggest disappointment," Gross said. "It's a strong Jewish community that doesn't have the opportunity to make their own choices…and the kosher customer pays for it."

Sosnick once offered to carry some Streit's products, but Gross was not happy with the offer.

"I'm hoping in the future [the local market] is going to get better," Gross said.

Ron Cocran, a Pennsylvania importer of Israel's Heritage matzah, isn't holding his breath. Twice during the late 1980s, he tried to toe in on the Bay Area Passover market. But to no avail.

"Free enterprise is built on competition, but there's no pressure on [grocers] to have two or three suppliers. The big gun gets all the attention," Cocran said.

The big guns in Florida probably wish they were getting a little less attention. Jewish customers there, incensed over the Passover prices, flooded state lawmakers' offices with complaints, causing the state attorney general to launch an investigation of possible anti-trust violations.

Bob Buchner, Florida's assistant attorney general, subpoenaed Manischewitz, Streit's and seven local distributors for business records that could point to price-fixing, the attorney said. The businesses have until May 13 to respond to the court order.

In California, Thomas Greene, assistant attorney general, said he hasn't received any complaints from Bay Area Jews. But because the state plans step up enforcement of anti-trust violations, he is closely watching the Florida case.