By COLlive reporter
With more than a million dollars in sales, the annual YU Seforim Sale is probably the biggest sale of holy and Jewish books in North America.
Held at the Yeshiva University in Washington Heights in New York, the sale began in 1964 and has almost 10,000 titles on hand for the 15,000 customers who turn up every year to browse and buy.
In recent years, the sale has seen an increase in interest in Chassidic seforim and more broadly, books related to Chabad. Last year, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin‘s New York Times Bestseller Rebbe was one of the top 10 best selling books at the sale, which runs through February 28 this year.
“We have seen an increased interest in Chassidus in general among the YU community in the past 5-10 years,” said Sami Ginsburg, the COO of The Seforim Sale.
“Additionally, and in response to that, The Seforim Sale has worked on its relationship with several distributors of Chassidic works over the past few years, which has led to our increase in Chassidic and Chabad products,” according to Ginsburg.
This year’s sale includes various Chabad related titles. Among them are Kuntres Umaayon, Chassidus Mevoeres, Heichal Menachem’s “Shaarei” series, Torah Studies, Seeds of Wisdom, and Rabbi Michoel Seligson‘s 1,600 page sefer, Mafteach Inyonim LiSichos Kodesh published by Kehot, indexing all the Rebbe’s spoken word.
“The Seforim Sale always looks to continue to grow and engage new and returning customers with new books and areas of Jewish learning, so we are very happy to see this current trend and hope it continues,” Ginsburg says.
Also on sale is the new book “The Secret of Chabad” by Rabbi David Eliezrie depicting the philosophies and personalities that made Chabad Lubavitch a worldwide phenomenon.
“While on a basic level, The Seforim Sale is a place to get seforim cheap,” Ginsburg said, “but it’s also much more than that, though. It is an experience in Jewish books and meeting other Jews around seforim on a scale that you don’t really find elsewhere. It is a place to discover just about any book you could think of on any Jewish-related topic imaginable.”
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