Profits and prophets abound when your customers are the People of the Book. What goes into creating what might be the world’s biggest annual seforim sale?
Avi Borgen calls the cross-section of customers at YU’s annual seforim sale a “hotbed of achdus.” Among the hundreds making their way from section to section one day in 2016 were a Rachmastrivker chassid one of the YU roshei yeshivah a balabos from the nearby Breuer’s community — and a woman decked out in kippah and tzitzis (Photos: Amir Levy)
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the popular YU Seforim Sale — three weeks 15000 visitors over 12 000 titles and hundreds of thousands of volumes. What goes into creating what might be the biggest annual seforim acquisition event in the world?
Sy Syms was a New York clothier whose famous ad campaign featured the tag line “An Educated Consumer Is Our Best Customer.” Each year around this time students at the Yeshiva University (YU) business school named for Syms hold the largest Jewish book sale in North America helping to create very educated consumers indeed — in Torah that is.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of “The YU Seforim Sale” a three-week-long “seforim palooza” drawing more than 15000 people from the tristate area and beyond and grossing close to $1 million in sales. The attractively designed tables and bookcases feature upwards of 12000 titles ranging from Gemara Tanach chassidus and halachah to history and biography from novels and cookbooks to children’s books and music CDs.
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