This is the second installment in a new monthly series, “Of Sacred Items And Gorgeous Tchotchkes,” looking closely at the Judaica items that fill our homes. Kiddush is one of those experiences that is nearly universal to Jews all over the world and at almost every level of religious observance. Whether you do it every…
“The rent went up and the sales went down,” explains Yaakov Saltzer matter-of-factly over the phone when discussing his decision to close down the 83-year-old West Side Judaica shop he has owned since the early 1980s. That is, until sales started going up again. Following a July report in West Side Rag announcing the store’s…
One group of Judaica scholars is taking crowdsourcing to a new level. In a new initiative to unlock the thousands of parchment fragments from the Cairo Geniza, scholars are inviting the public to help scholars sort document fragments — all online, as part of a project by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the Princeton Geniza…
A candidate for New York City Council is organizing a Tuesday rally against high business rents at West Side Judaica, a much-loved community institution on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that is slated to close due to mounting costs. “Every one of us has lost favorite stores and restaurants in recent years. These institutions, like Judaica,…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Yaakov Seltzer remembers a different world, when he would sell his customers prayer books, then hand them an invitation to his daughter’s wedding. When they would come in to Seltzer’s store to order a kippah for their new grandson, then ask him to attend the bris. Or they would stop in…
A much-beloved 83-year-old Manhattan Judaica store is set to close down in the near future, with the owner citing the high rent and the effect of Internet book sales as his reasons. “I can’t afford the rent and the Internet,” owner Yaakov Saltzer told the West Side Rag. His store, which he bought in the…
Looking to buy a killer Hanukkah gift? Well, if you have extremely deep pockets, this upcoming Sotheby’s auction might be for you. On December 15th, international auction house Sotheby’s will auction off 288 pieces of Judaica from around the world dating from between the 17th and 20th centuries. The auction will feature metalwork, textiles, and…
It was the highest price ever paid for a Jewish book. And the sale, along with 11 other books, broke up the most valuable private Judaica collection ever assembled. How much further the famed Valmadonna Trust Library may be broken up is unclear—and remains a concern of scholars and collectors around the world. The book…
