Journal of an Obsessed Hunter-Gatherer Biblio-maniac
The main purpose of this journal is to chronicle how a project like this grows. Not only should it give the reader an idea of how books are acquired but also what kind of books we are looking for. Phase 2 of the acquisition process began in February 2006, after I returned from my second visit to Nigeria. By mid-August, over 1300 volumes had been collected. There are 440 titles, mostly non-fiction. There are 52 copies of the Hertz Pentateuch, 97 copies of Siddur Sim Shalom (weekdays, Shabbat and festivals) and yet-uncounted copies of the Silverman Siddur; miscellaneous “student” siddurim (Shiloh, Siddur Meforash); books for learning the Hebrew language; and Hebrew-English dictionaries. Tuesday, August 22: Received three boxes of books sent by Rabbi Ruven Barkan of the Chicagoland Jewish High School. Among the books received were several in the “most desired” category: Basic Judaism (Milton Steinberg); Contemporary Jewish Thought (Simon Noveck); Great Jewish Personalities: Ancient/Medieval (Simon Noveck); The History of the Jewish Experience (Leon Trepp); Jerusalem: City of Mirrors (Amos Elon); Jewish Law (Louis Jacobs); The Passover Anthology (Philip Goodman); and Service of the Heart (Evelyn Garfiel). Among the new titles added to the collection: Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (Victor Tcherikover); Jewish Mystical Testimonies (Louis Jacobs); Studies in Jewish Thought (Simon Rawidowicz). All in all, some 60 books, well over half suitable for this project. Friday, August 25: Purchased six books at the Friends of the Library bookstore: Two copies of Max Dimont’s The Indestructible Jews (i.e., brain candy); two copies of Jacob R. Marcus’ The Jew in the Medieval World; one copy of Norman Bentwich’s Solomon Schechter; and one unexpected gem - The Jews of Poland in Tale and Legend, by Ewa Basiura. Cost for all six: $10. Monday, August 28: MABUL!!! (A flood) My son Yoni and I went to the Jewish Publication Society’s warehouse. I am acting as their shaliah (agent) to see that their damaged books find new homes in communities that cannot afford quality Jewish books. Many damaged books look damaged: ripped covers, torn or missing pages. Most, however, are in great shape and look brand new. We came away with some 50 cartons of books. In addition, two congregants on the way home from taking their daughter to Brandeis stopped in Stamford, CT, where a Bat Mitzvah girl has been collecting books for this project. (Here is the flyer that she distributed at her school.) They brought home some 30 boxes and several bags - and there is much more where these came from. And if that weren’t enough, someone local left a message, saying that she had some books that I might be interested in looking at. Tuesday, August 29: I received an email from Michael Ophir, telling me that he has another box of books to ship to me. Mike has given books to the project in the past. For the past few days I have been ruing over the fact that I had passed up an opportunity to buy multiple copies of Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson’s wonderful book, The Bedside Torah. As luck would have it, when I checked out Book Closeouts website, I found that there were 50 copies available for purchase. I bought them all. That is what I mean by “obsession.” You would think that the ton of books we collected at the JPS warehouse - not to mention that books from Connecticut - would suffice for a month or two. Uh-uh. Wednesday, August 30: Another couple passing through Connecticut stopped at the Bat Mitzvah girl’s home and brought back to Rockville a dozen (or so) boxes. Time to start finding new homes for these books. I have begun a correspondence with a very bright, articulate and passionate rabbi in Bristol, England - Rabbi Natan Levy. He is a Jewish chaplain at the University of the West of England. He is trying to start a Jewish library for the students there “to give [them] the opportunity to see how vast and rich is our tradition.” I look forward to sending him what he needs. Thursday, August 31: Stopped at the Friends of the Public Library bookstore in Wheaton. What the heck; it was on my way home. Walked out with 18 books, including: Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews; Nahum Glatzer, The Judaic Tradition; Howard Morley Sachar’s The Course of Modern Jewish History (Revised); Conor Cruise O’brien’s The Siege; Leo Schwarz’s Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People; Joan Comay, The Diaspora Story; Soncino The Twelve Prophets. Unique find: André Maurois’ A History of England translated into Hebrew: Divre Y’me Anglia. Total cost of the 18 books, after a 10% discount (Hey: I’m a frequent patron): $30 or less than $1.70 per books. Received in the mail: Every Person’s Guide to Judaism, by Lydia Kukoff, which I had won in eBay auction for 99 cents (plus $2.50 shipping). Was informed by email that I had the winning bids on two other books: Judaism, by Norman Solomon, and Living Judaism, by Wayne Dosick. $1.74 for both plus $5.25 shipping. (They were purchased from the same seller.) $10.48 for three books - less than $3.50 per book: not bad. Sunday, September 3: Spent several hours last night and several hours today sorting through the books that were brought down from Connecticut. Many excellent additions to the project’s collection, including some real gems. There were quite a few seforim that will be given to Rabbi Yaakov Lipsky, of the Rabbi Samuel and Zehava Friedman Kollel in Olney, Maryland. Other books will be shared with Igbo historian, Barrister Remy Ilona. Also, there are many books that will go the library bookstore and the Book Thing up in Baltimore. We are very quickly running out of storage space. The 1300 books cited above have grown to well over 2000 books. It is time to start finding new homes for some of these books. Monday, September 4: 2385 books shelved and counted. Not yet counted: Silverman prayerbooks; Shiloh siddurim and Siddur Meforash; Modern Hebrew and Hebrew-English dictionaries. Tuesday, September 5: So, maybe I am a bit more obsessed (addicted?) than I’d care to admit. Today, after dropping off my sister at the Metro, I detoured to Second Story Books and bought 20 more books (average: $3.70/book). In addition, two boxes arrived today, from Book Closeouts. I will be adding some 80 books to the collection. Tuesday, October 24: The last entry was made a scant ten days before Rosh Hashanah. The holiday season demands a good measure of energy and attention. As a result, there was only light activity during this period. A few purchases at the Friends of the Library bookstores and a few purchases at Second Story Books. Some ebay purchases and, of course, daily checking the new listings at Book Closeouts. A few really good finds, such as Nahum Sarna’s Commentary on Genesis (part of the Jewish Publication Society’s Torah Commentary Series) - a like-new copy for $3! Yesterday, however, I went through the books at Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah’s library, in Wilmette, Illinois. I shipped five cartons: three Tikvat Israel and two to the Aleph Institute (North East Region), located in Pittsburgh, PA. The season of giving has begun. Read more about it here. That is good thing, because the season of serious gathering is about to begin. I have another foray at the JPS warehouse tentatively scheduled for mid-December. The libarian at Temple Adath Yeshurun, in Syracuse, NY, has been collecting books for the project; my daughter will probably cart home several boxes when she comes home for Thanksgiving. On Monday I will visiting the library at Etz Hayim in Arlington, VA; they have been culling books from their shelves and setting them aside for this project. I also heard from the volunteer librarian at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, in Charleston, SC; according to her, they have a few hundred books to donate to the project. Just today I heard from Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, AL; they heard about the project from the Association of Jewish Libraries’ newsletter, and they too want to donate books. And I still have scores of cartons of books waiting for me in Connecticut. (See entry for August 28, above.) But today I received the best news of all: the container we shipped in February finally left the port at Tin Can Island (Lagos, Nigeria) and is now in Enugu State, its contents about to be distributed. Hallelujah!! October 30: Today I went to Etz Hayim in Arlington, Virginia. It was observed that I had the look of a kid in a candy store. The haul: Four milk crates, four large cartons, three grocery bags and one large plastic storage bin filled with chumashim, siddurim, books culled from the library and textbooks, many of them unused. Hot-diggety-dawg! My thanks to Marcia Zimmet, Etz Hayim’s volunteer librarian, and Michlle Weiss, Etz Hayim’s Educatonal Director. You might think that with such abundance, I would be satisfied for the day. Not so. I went on-line to Book Closeouts .com and was rewarded for my efforts. 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