About Us

A native of Husiyatin, Galicia, Rabbi Dovid Frankel was a renowned sefarim merchant based first in his hometown, and then in his new home of Vienna. He would travel in search of rare manuscripts to purchase and resell, gems like Rabbeinu Elchonon on Meseches Avodah Zarah and the Ritva on Bava Basra. So well-known was the Frankel name that with the Nazi rise to power, Eichmann himself, yemach shmo, marched into R' Dovid's business and immediately confiscated the valuable collection, ordering the family to leave within twenty four hours--or else.

R' Dovid eventually reopened his business on the Lower East Side in New York. After his petirah, his son Rabbi Lipa Frankel ran Frankel's Bookstore, moving the storefront to Boro Park. In between selling wares, R' Lipa involved himself in his first love, learning from his sefarim! In the mid-eighties, the Frankel family sold the business to Rabbi Binyomin Kasnett, who ran the bookstore for over twenty years before he closed its doors and went online as JewishUsedBooks.com.

In the summer of 2013, incurable sefarim aficionado Dovid Silverberg responded to an advertisement in the Yated Neeman. "Online Jewish used bookstore for sale." Whom did he reach but the interim owner of Frankel's Bookstore from 16th Avenue in Boro Park! And so it was that the great-grandson and namesake of R' Dovid Frankel, Dovid Silverberg, grabbed the opportunity to bring the business back into the family. Combining business acumen with the hereditary love for sefarim and all things Judaica, R' Dovid has re-established Frankel's World of Judaica in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stop in and see for yourself!