Not Just Another Seforim Store by Malky Lowinger

Seforim Forwarders

Not Just Another Seforim Store

BY MALKY LOWINGER

There’s a new shop in town, and it’s not quite like anything else you’ve ever experienced.

Seforim Forwarders, located at 1011 Broadway in Woodmere, offers a unique variety of services. For starters, they offer shaimos l’genizah at the highest level of kashrus. They also sell a huge selection of seforim and Jewish books, including many hard-to-find items, at deep discounts.

The shopping experience at Seforim Forwarders can best be described as a treasure hunt. Only the treasures can be purchased here at a fraction of their original cost. To anyone passionate about seforim or Jewish books, it’s sure to be a favorite destination.

We spoke to Louie Taplin, the proprietor of Seforim Forwarders, to get the story behind the store.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I grew up in Lakewood, and I’ve literally been selling seforim almost my whole life. Seforim have been in my family for generations. My great-grandfather, R’ Moses Pollack, sold seforim on the Lower East Side. My grandfather, Rav Yisroel Taplin, wrote seforim. And my father, who’s a total seforim addict, has been in the business and serving the Lakewood community for twenty-seven years. I’ve been helping him with his business ever since I can remember.

You currently have a thriving, established store in Lakewood and one in Monsey, besides the many pop-up shops you set up over the years in various communities. Why open a store in the Five Towns?

Great question. As you know, we have stores in other locations and we’re baruch Hashem busy. But my dad had a lot of inventory sitting in storage – excellent merchandise that people would enjoy. About two years ago, I approached him with the idea to open a store here.

We certainly aren’t strangers to the Five Towns. We’ve had a shaimos truck parked on Beach 9th street during the pre-Pesach season for the past twenty-plus years. We’ve been serving the local shuls and yeshivas as well as private community members. We’ve also done occasional pop-up shops in this area where we’ve offered an eclectic mix of seforim and books.

On a personal note, I’ve been doing a lot of shaimos pick-ups in this neighborhood, and I started getting to know the people and building relationships. So we’re certainly not new to the community and everyone knows us here.

Is there something unique about the Five Towns community that made you decide to establish a store here?

What I’ve learned over time is that clearly there are a lot of people in this community who are passionate about seforim. They are thrilled that we opened up in

PHOTOS BY GABE SOLOMON

the neighborhood. We have strong roots here, and there’s a huge level of trust.

We feel that this community reflects the diversity of what we offer. In other neighborhoods, such as Lakewood, Monroe, and Williamsburg, there’s a more specific range of seforim that customers are looking for. Here in the Five Towns, it’s not one size fits all. It’s a community with diverse interests, and we try to accommodate everybody.

We’ve also acquired a huge amount of seforim and books from the Five Towns community over the years, whether it’s from estates, families who are downsizing, or local bookstores and yeshivas. So, in a way, our coming here is an expression of hakoras hatov to this wonderful community.

Let’s talk for a moment about your shaimos business. How does it work?

Shaimos is way more complicated than people think. It’s not just a matter of burying books in the ground. There are major poskim who discuss the halachos in detail, and it’s not simple. The items have to be bagged a certain way and they have to be placed in the ground with plastic so as to delay their decay.

Also, you can’t bury shaimos just anywhere. Many states have strict laws and regulations about this for environmental reasons. That’s why shaimos often has to be shipped out of state. It’s a complex business, and I’m proud to say that my father is probably the most trusted shaimos collector in America today. His shaimos business is under the strict hashgacha of both the Satmar bais din of Williamsburg and Rav Shlomo Zalman Friedman of Lakewood.

Are the shaimos and seforim businesses are connected?

I’ll explain it this way. The motto behind our entire operation is that nothing should go to waste. Chances are there is somebody out there who could really use those seforim that you’re putting into shaimos. Our job is to browse through the hundreds of boxes and crates filled with seforim, retrieve the useful ones, and then resell them in one of our stores. We are experts at salvaging and rehabilitating seforim that are ripped or torn. After so many years in the business, we recognize which seforim are usable, even if they aren’t new, and which ones are in demand. That’s why we offer a very eclectic and diverse mix of seforim and books that can satisfy every taste.

People from all over the world call us when they want to get rid of used seforim, either as an estate sale or when they’re moving or maybe just because they decided to reorganize their house. We have received collections and libraries from places as far as Florida, Texas, Montreal, Toronto, and France. Most people love the idea that others can enjoy the seforim that they can’t use anymore. In a way, it’s like keeping a legacy alive.

So you sell used or second hand seforim?

That’s part of our business. But actually, about 70% of our inventory is brand new. We buy out the inventory of seforim stores, publishers, and wholesalers and sell the merchandise at a discount to the customer. Currently, we have a massive collection of about 100,000 seforim and books located on two floors sitting on our shelves right here in the Five Towns. It’s a very serious collection.

What are some of the more popular seforim that you sell?

Some customers come to us looking for hidden treasures, but plenty of others come for the basics. A Chumash, a siddur, a Navi, a Gemara, a Rambam, a Shulchan Aruch, a Shnayim Mikrah, Chovos Halevovos, Tanya, Pirkei Avos, Shmiras Haloshon, and Living Emunah are among the seforim that are constantly in demand.

We also carry a selection single volumes. If someone is looking to complete a set of Mishnayos or Gemara because maybe he’s missing one volume, he will often find it here.

There are other popular seforim. For example, I sell the Frankel Rambams as singles. They go like hotcakes. There’s a Maharal published by CIS that’s out of print. People come in looking for it here. Then there are the collectors. One of our customers is collecting halacha journals, and he asks me to look out for them. He’s already acquired a collection of several thousand pieces, and he says he enjoys reading them on Shabbos.

Aside from that, we carry a large collection of history books, cookbooks, novels, biographies, and children’s books. There’s literally something for everyone at thirty to seventy percent off the list price.

You mentioned hidden treasures?

Serious shoppers who are looking for antique seforim or rare manuscripts visit us often. About a month ago, I sold a sefer by Rav Avigdor Miller that was signed by him. It’s considered very valuable. My father once discovered a rare Kodshim Yerushalmi dating back hundreds of years. It was found in Seagate after Hurricane Sandy, and it’s supposed to be worth thousands.

Some people come in here searching for hidden

“We feel that this community reflects the diversity of what we offer.”

gems and unique seforim. We encourage browsing, and they’ll spend some time here searching for treasures, eventually purchasing several other things besides what they came for.

Another aspect of our business is rehabilitating old seforim. People will sometimes come in with a sefer that has a torn binding. We can repair it and tape it together properly. We also have a special system for removing the names and other markings on a sefer. So, for example, bochurim often shop by us for Kovtzim, which generally sell on the market for thirty to forty dollars. We repair used Kovtzim and stock them, and then we sell them to grateful bochurim for about fourteen dollars.

What are your busiest seasons?

There are four super busy seasons in the seforim business: the summer, bein hazmanim, Elul (back to school season), and erev yom tovim. But, frankly, learning is a year-round activity, and we are really busy all year long.

Has the pandemic affected your business?

Actually, we’ve been busier than ever since the pandemic started. During the lockdown, our phones were ringing off the hook. Lots of people were sitting home with plenty of time on their hands so they started organizing the seforim in their homes. At the time, we were the only ones collecting shaimos, so they called us for pick-up. On the flip side, people were home and eager to learn a new sefer or read a good book. So that kept us quite busy.

It sounds like you love what you do. is for sure a labor of love. Yes, there’s plenty of heavy lifting and shlepping of boxes involved. But the sense of satisfaction is tremendous. We’re getting paid to provide a service that helps people on both sides of the spectrum – those who are unloading excess seforim and those who wish to purchase holy books, but at a discount. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Plus, I’m a people person. I love networking and connecting with people. I learn so much from my customers, many of whom come in to browse and start meaningful conversations. It’s a pleasure to connect with the wonderful people of this amazing community.