Father and son give Jewish books a longer shelf life by launching online platform

A father and son have come up with an ingenious idea to enable people to get rid of unwanted Jewish books in a money-saving and environmentally friendly way.

Martin and Rafael Kander from Hendon, north-west London, have created SeferSwap, an online platform where customers can give away and obtain books free of charge.

Jewish law dictates that books containing sacred texts are not able to be discarded in the conventional way, but should instead be taken to a Sheimos bank, from where they are taken for burial.

But Martin, found that these boxes – usually located in synagogues – were filling up quickly, so an alternative solution was needed.

“When people make Aliyah or a family member passes on, they find themselves with bookshelves of seferim (books). They want to dispose of them in a halachic way (according to Jewish law), but they don’t know what to do with them. So, I thought, let’s do something about this and pass them on to people who need them.”

The website could mean substantial savings, as price hikes in the last few years had seen the cost of some study and prayer books “nearly doubling”, said Martin.

“I don’t want to do booksellers out of business, but SeferSwap means that people can keep the lifecycle of a book going by giving it to someone who needs it, so they don’t have to go out any buy it.”

SeferSwap, which has over 50 categories of books, ranging from Mishnah and Talmud commentaries to dating, marriage and parenting, is easy to join and doesn’t cost a penny.

Once logged on, browsers are able to search for a book available in their local area and also list their own books. There is a chat function for users to make arrangements as to how they will deliver or receive books. So far, since it launched at the end of 2024, around 200 books have exchanged hands.

Some of the books are nearly new, while others have been in families for years. “Someone was doing a clear-out in Golders Green and came across an old Indian Haggadah with Indian Jewish customs, which he put on the website,” said Martin.

The member of Toras Chaim congregation in Hendon said that, as well as the project being run by two generations of the same family, the website serves the purpose of handing down Jewish learning from one generation to the next.

“There are different phases of learning in people’s lives, where people go through different books. So, when you're finished with a specific sefer and need room for more, you can gift that sefer on. It is a generational artefact, which is then able to go to a new generation.”

His son Rafael, 15, created the website after studying coding in his own time and is now in charge of its maintenance.

He told the JC: “I think it’s a really good idea, especially for pupils at my school, where the first lesson of the school day is spent on Jewish learning. Pupils don’t always have their own Gemarah, so I am directing them to SeferSwap.”

Crediting his son with the development of the website, Martin said: “Rafael ….is a talented technologist. This is to the extent that many of his friends, his parents and grandparents –  and their friends –  come to him for technical advice and technical skills.

“His great aunt once asked him to solve a problem that she had been to the [computer] shop to resolve. They couldn’t do it, but Rafael did it in about 45 seconds walking along the street.”

Martin also paid tribute to Rafael’s software engineering coach and mentor, Mr Sami Birnbaum, who has been advising Rafael along the way.

Aswell as enabling Rafael “to improve his technical skills to a professional level and deliver something that can benefit the community”, SeferSwap has also “boosted his son’s confidence”, he said.

The hope, Martin added, is that the website becomes the go-to global online platform for passing on and obtaining used Jewish books. “SeferSwap exists because we believe books / seforim are not for a one-time use, but that their knowledge, teaching and impact on their readers and studiers should be as wide as possible and go through as many generations as possible.

He said that while they were not expecting every book listed to find a new home as many books today had clearer print or simpler formatting, “for every book that finds a new home, someone has continued the giver’s legacy, expanded knowledge and created a new connection in the community”.

While the service is free to both those who wish to either give away or find books, the community is being invited to make donations to support the website’s running costs.

Click here to visit SeferSwap

Read next: Your must-see guide to Jewish Book Week