SOY Tallies Biggest Seforim Sale Turnout Ever

From its modest beginning in 1972 as a sale featuring one table full of rishonim and achronim, the annual SOY Seforim Sale has expanded into a mega-event in New York City, this year attracting an estimated 18,000 customers - record breaking figures according to Sale organizers. The 2001 Sale, which ran for some fifteen days in February, also logged the most ever books ordered, most books sold, and most total sales. In spite of the impressive figures, the sale, as usual, made little profit. After extremely low markups - the sale's main attraction to off-campus customers - and after SOY covers, among other ordering expenses, workers' salaries and rent to Yeshiva for use of its Belfer 501, much of the remaining profit is to be used as start-up funds for next year's sale. The year-in-advance focus of each sale is an indication that the event has assumed a most prominent role among SOY's fundraising activities.

This year, over seven thousand items went on the selling block, ranging from hard-to-find seforim by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky to handy devices like the Shabbos belt, which allows its wearer to carry house keys without the help of an eruv. The hottest selling item, benefiting significantly from the sale's minimal markup, was Feldheim's new encyclopedic masterpiece, The 39 Melochos, authored by Rabbi Dovid Ribiat, of which more than 250 copies were sold. The four-volume set, with a list price of $99.95, was a bargain at $82.75.

Stephen Tolany, senior buyer for the Sale, noted that the organizers were "extremely happy" that three new college presses - SUNY, Wayne St. University and Harvard - sold books to SOY. They join Littman Press, which "started last year and sold very well this time around," according to the buying staff.

The 2001 Sale purported to be more than a book sale, as it was kicked off by a lecture for the second year in a row. Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel, chair of the Jewish Studies Department at Stern College, addressed to a packed Weissberg Commons and then signed his two newest works - the more recent of which, Peering Through the Lattices, would sell out some two weeks later. There was also an Ohel-sponsored concert featuring Yisroel Williger, who filled in for Yeshiva favorite Shloime Dachs, who had cancelled after his wife went into labor earlier that day. In addition, the Sale offered a family night with music and magic aimed at a younger audience. Organizers believe that both attracted additional clientele, which helped contribute to the record-breaking sales. Nevertheless, some outsiders marveled at the lack of desire or inability on the part of Yeshiva to use the event to further acclimate the Jewish world to the University. "With such an unbelievable turnout, it's a shame that Yeshiva doesn't utilize the Sale as a recruitment event," explained one insider speaking on the condition of anonymity. "No 'Welcome to Yeshiva University' signs, nothing," he wondered.

The one thing lost in all the excitement was the usually popular table of rishonim and achronim for the gemarah tractate that Yeshiva learns the following year. Because tractate Beitzah boasts fewer commentaries than most of the gemarahs learned by Yeshiva, this table - which has been a staple for the past twenty years - was relegated to a small corner of the room.