At the official opening. Deputy Mayor Moisch Levy with Merle Guttmann, ESRA President, Jackie Klein & Cynthia Barmor, ESRA Modiin co-chairs

10.00, Friday, October 1, 2010: It was with a mixture of anticipation, pride and panic that esrabooks - Modiin’s second hand bookshop - opened its doors for business. Both of us had envisioned this day more than a year and a half ago when we decided to develop and expand ESRA’s activities in Modiin. We understood that having a bookshop would become our anchor in the city and raise both awareness and funds. The shop would also serve as our hub for various activities including the magazine distribution and ticket sales to our events.

   Anticipation as it means esrabooks are in the big leagues now; we have raised the ante with this new responsibility. That the shop is located in Modiin’s Azrieli mall (albeit on the first parking level) is a tremendous boost not only to our status in the city, but also to our morale. We have arrived!

   Of course we did not do this alone. Yes, we worked very hard long days, bringing box upon box of books from the store room in Dimri Towers by car to the mall, then getting the books alphabetized and onto the book shelves - who needs to go to gym anyway? But esrabooks would not have become a reality without the outstanding and staunch backing of Frank Garrun who never seemed to tire, the team at national head office, ESRA’s two other bookstores in Raanana and Or Akiva, and our superb volunteers here in Modiin. National committed to a venture with nothing more solid than a gut feeling that there was a real need in the English speaking community for such a store, and their support was an undeniable thumbs-up of faith for us.

   In addition, the level of pride in the teams of local tradespeople who had given their time and expertise to turn this dusty, dark, oddly shaped, hot and humid storeroom into a real and aesthetic, pleasing shop was rewarding and proved to be a partnership of wonderful charitable spirits. With everyone’s assistance we can now offer the public the choice of at least 2000 used books in good condition for adults and children on every topic under the sun. We even have a growing section in Hebrew in order to attract our fellow Modiiners, but have sadly had to turn away offers of French, Russian and even Greek books for lack of space.

   We remained true to ESRA’s new color scheme of orange and grey as borne out by our colorful shelving and painted pipes (oh yes, this was a storeroom after all). We have long had our own esrabooks logo, but nowhere to really use it. Now the logo appears outside the bookshop as well as on our specially printed bookmarks and roll-ups which will be used both in the shop and placed at our every event. The hand-painted sign outside (no money yet for a neon but that will come in good time), is also in ESRA colors. The shop sports a kiddies’ corner with table and chairs, and while coffee for customers is not yet possible it is an objective for the future.

   As a sign of the community’s enthusiasm, over 40 volunteers have registered to work in the bookshop. Some will be regulars, others will be floaters filling in periodically. You can well understand that coordinating the roster will be a huge task!

   In our efforts to raise awareness and encourage English, and within the framework of esrabooks, we will be initiating ESRA’s English story hour in November. This will be offered by our brave volunteers who will be trained by Brenda Brett, a professional drama teacher and member of our local committee. Story hour will take place every second Thursday from 5 to 6 pm on the second floor opposite the food court. The mall will provide the sound equipment, carpeting and seating, and we will provide the story tellers for two age groups of 2-4 and 5-7.

   And now comes the panic – is it going to work out? Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Are we going to be able to create a friendly and efficient service to the readers of Modiin and at the same time make some serious money? In addition to our obligation to ESRA, we also have an obligation to the 15 kids in Neve ESRA – the afternoon center for high risk children that ESRA Modiin has adopted. But know that if the results can be paralleled in any way to the effort expended, then it can only be a fabulous success. 

 

Esrabooks Opens with Fanfare

“ESRA is very important to Modiin”, said Moish Levy, Deputy Mayor and holder of the Education Portfolio, at the official opening of esrabooks, on Tuesday, October 19, 2010. He was referring to the organization’s significant contribution towards the absorption of new English speaking immigrants through social and volunteering activities in the city, as well as the various projects it supports.

 

The festive opening was attended by Merle Guttmann, Founder and Life President of ESRA, Linda Olmert, Executive Director of ESRA, and an array of Modiiners including Rabbi Adi Sultanik who affixed the mezuzza to the doorpost, Yoram Pick, Managing Director of the Azrieli Mall and key staff members, and more than 40 bookshop volunteers whose community spirit was highly commended by Deputy Mayor Levy. He noted that Modiin has the highest percentage of volunteers of any city in Israel, and that ESRA plays an integral role in that effort.

 

Merle Guttmann praised ESRA Modiin for their huge achievements and recalled her initial meeting with Jackie Klein, co-chair of ESRAModiin just a year and a half ago. She noted their ability to set targets and attain them indicating that membership has grown steadily as more and more people have become aware of and participating in the impressive array of community and cultural activities. Awareness is now spreading to other towns in the Modiin vicinity such as Hashmonaim, Nof Ayalon and as far as Yad Binyamin, 20 minutes to the south. A special presentation was made by ESRA Modiin to Frank Garrun, an active volunteer on the national level, whose personal drive and enthusiasm helped make the bookshop a reality in such a short time.

 

Cynthia Barmor, co-chair of ESRA Modiin, noted the outstanding response from the local community and the willingness of so many professionals and businesses to provide their services gratis. Following the ribbon-cutting by Deputy Mayor Levy, and “L’chaim”, visitors perused the bulging bookshelves of English and Hebrew books available for sale. Levy was delighted with his purchase of a copy of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”, which he said was a bargain at 18 shekels.

 

Esrabooks is the third ESRA bookshop to open following Raanana and Or Akiva, but the only one to offer second hand books in both English and Hebrew.

 

 Esrabooks is open daily Sunday-Friday 10am-1pm, as well as two afternoons a week Tuesday 6-9pm and Thursday 4-7pm.

 

 

 

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About the author

Cynthia Barmor

Cynthia came on Aliyah from Cape Town, South Africa on Nov.10th, 1968. She is a high school graduate and has a diploma in Diagnostic Radiography. In south Africa she worked as a Radiographer at Gro...
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Jackie Klein

Jackie was born and raised in London and worked for a time in publishing which included contributing articles to various magazines. In 1976, together with husband Alan and children Georgia & Davi...
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