When searching for hebrew bookstores, I typed just that into google and picked the closest one to my house. A few days later, walking into Mizrahi Bookstore felt like a scene out of a Harry Potter movie. Books are piled everywhere, in shelves and on the floor, looking like they’re about to topple over. While the three of us are Jewish and are familiar with these kind of books, the set up of the store would get any book lover excited. He has signs on the shelves with letters on them, claiming they are in some kind of alphabetical order, but it’s difficult for anyone but himself to find what they’re looking for on their own, considering the many different languages he carries in the store. Therefore, he prefers his customers to call ahead of time and schedule an appointment with him, so he can set aside some time to really help them. (Krausz)

When we arrived, it was a couple of days after a major snowstorm, and yet he was still climbing over icy mountains back and forth from a delivery truck with packages of books all by himself. When we went into his office to ask him some questions, he started showing us a few of the different books on his desk; They were all stacked in one pile, but one was a rare children’s illustrated book from India while another was the prayer of Selichot, as different as two things can be. While he was open to our questions, he showed us a few online articles that were previously written about his store where we could get detailed information. When googling him, we found that his bookstore is pretty well known.

I’ve been to more commercial Jewish bookstores before, and they seem worlds apart from Mizrahi Bookstore. It’s hard to feel the culture in the commercial ones, because it looks so “normal.” It was really a pleasure to meet someone who has such respect for books and takes such personal care in each one he purchases. With the many languages and different countries he includes in his collection, Mizrahi really encompasses the wide range of Jewish culture. This bookstore is about a ten minute drive from my house, really under my nose, and I never knew about it. Maybe next time I need a Judaica book, I’ll check in Mizrahi Bookstore before Amazon and support this little hub of culture in our big New York City.