Six years ago, I ran a used seforim sale at Tifereth Israel (the Tif) in Passaic, trying to help as many neglected seforim as possible — i.e., those sitting on shelves (or in boxes) not being studied or even referenced — find their way to a bookshelf where they could help their new owners strengthen their connection with our Creator. B”H we helped thousands of old seforim find a new home, and in the process raised a few thousand dollars for the shul.
My hope was not only to give these seforim a new life, but to encourage other communities to hold similar events. Shlomo Greenwald ran a Sefer-Fest in Fair Lawn the past couple of years, which were great events (I was even a vendor at the last one), but the need is still there. Rabbi Aaron Cohen (of the Tif) asked me if we could do it again as a community service. How could I say no? But things have changed since the last one.
For one thing, Capitol Seforim has since opened a store in Passaic (in addition to their stores in Lakewood, Monsey and Monroe), so there’s already a local option for old seforim to find a new home. After speaking to the owner, though, he thought it would be a good idea to have another sale, and they will once again be a vendor at the event. (As an added bonus, someone from the Passaic branch has offered to try to be there when seforim are donated, to take seforim that cannot be donated to the shul (based on their condition or an assessment that they are not likely to find a new home) for sheimos (for a small fee), thereby saving donors a separate trip to the store).
Other things that have changed are based on lessons learned from the last event. We (hopefully) have a better idea of which seforim will likely find a new home, so can adjust accordingly. Our prices were so good last time (and will be at least as good, perhaps even better, this time), that professional resellers came early and bought many seforim in order to sell them online at a higher price. This upset many who came to buy seforim for themselves, as they lost out on many good deals, so we were asked to try to prevent this from happening again. In order to minimize this, I plan to put together a list of seforim that will be available at the sale that can be purchased ahead of time (through the shul’s website), to be picked up at the sale.
I hope to provide more details before the sale (which is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend), but anyone with seforim to donate can contact me (rabbidmk@gmail.com) to make arrangements to meet at the shul. (We already received several Haggados, which we will try to help find a new home for before Pesach; ask me about them when donating seforim!) All proceeds go directly to the shul, but the purpose of this event is to help old seforim (and some that aren’t so old) find a new home. Let’s do this again!
Rabbi Dov Kramer is a member of the Tif and will be going through his collection to find seforim he doubts he will use to donate to the shul for the sale.
