I'd never heard of this bookstore before and they sell primarily English-only paperbacks. I knew this was the store for me, when I saw the following important notice tacked to one of the shelves:
I asked the person behind the counter if he was "Oren" and he laughed, saying he was only the manager. "Oren" he said, is the maiden name of the wife of one of the owners. I told him he should wear a t-shirt saying "I'm not Oren".
Sadly though, the bookstore is slated to be closed in the coming months. If you happen to be in Raanana (behind Meatland) and want to get some good paperbacks, I recommend warmly, "Oren Books."
Our other noteworthy stop was in Kefar Sava at the Judaica Supply and book store, "Yefet". We picked up a copy of "A Tzaddik in our Time" (about R' Aryeh Levin) as a Bar Mitzva present. When checking out, the elderly store owner mentioned to us that as a youngster, he used to go with R' Aryeh Levin to the British jails to deliver food to the Jewish prisoners of Etzel and Lechi underground movements. Great book...or read about him on-line here.
How cool is that? You can't go ten feet in this country without coming face to face with history from the past, or history in the making.
* Sadly, the website for Oren Books has already expired so I can't even offer you the link.
** Raanana Ramblings is also a slice of life blog -- thoughts from a busy Mom in Ra'anana, Israel
10 comments:
it's a shame about their website... might possibly have found something there.
great sign though!
I remember I bought that book (A tzaddik in our time) after we'd heard that story or had a little tour of something that was relevant to it (the prison or a street maybe? I'll have to check my journal).
What an awesome bookstore! I love that sign!
Yes, I read the book, it brought tears into my eyes, I do not think in our generation we have anybody like this. The love he had for fellow Jews is not something we can find these days.
Actually that book kept me closer to Judaism when I realized that there are/were great rabbis in Orthodox Judaism.
I think he is the father in law if Rav Elyashiv, Unfortunately he did not absorb any of the love from his father in law.
Way cool!
Once again, I regret not living in our land.
"Car muffler needed to be replaced"
a car muffler never "needs" to be replaced. the first thing my friend, who collects cars, does when buying a new one is he cuts out the muffler and replaces it with a strait exhaust.
when i first started going out with my wife, my car was so loud i did not have the ring the bell whenever i picked her up. she heard me coming from 3 blocks away. i finally replaced the muffler when it came off on the belt parkway--with half of my exhaust pipe. and even then i replaced it not because of the noise, but because of the exhaust fumes leaking into the car.
"We picked up a copy of "A Tzaddik in our Time" (about R' Aryeh Levin) as a Bar Mitzva present."
a great book i read as a teenager. i picked up another copy recently for $2 to give as a gift but it is still sitting on my desk. you should have told me and i would have sent it to you to give to the bar mitzvah kid.
I'm very curious as to what was on that shelf....
Me too. One person's boring is another person's mitzeeah.
elie:
"Me too. One person's boring is another person's mitzeeah."
i say one person's garbage is another person's metzeeah. some the best book metziot i've found were in shamos.
You know, I noticed the other day that I got a lot of hits from your blog- but I didn't have time to check out why and this is the first time I've been at the computer since then. So...now I get it!
And darn, I didn't know Oren's Books was closing! That's a shame, I've bought books there a few times and I was hoping they'd make a go of it.
As for Reb Aryeh, I met him, in 1966 when I came to Israel for Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz and brought him regards from his grandson, Benjie Levin with whom I studied at YU. Anmd when he took your hand in his and rubbed his over yours, there was real heat, just like it says in the book
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