Just hearing the term Seforim Sale arouses many different thoughts. Some people think of books they want to purchase, others think of the chance of catching up with old friends, and some think of meeting their besheret. But when I hear “Seforim Sale,” I think of something totally different. As someone who was involved in running the sale I was more concerned with the financial integrity and transparency of our operations.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Seforim Sale, it is a completely student-run event that aims to raise funds for YU undergraduate activities. The Sale is the largest Jewish book sale in North America and sells just over 15,000 titles and grosses on average $1 million every year. If run correctly, the Sale should raise between $60,000 and $80,000 a year to donate to student life.

The sale faces many challenges that are not really known to the student body. The largest issue is that many of the leaders of the Sale spend money on items that are unnecessary such as food (from expensive restaurants like Le Marais) and other personal items. These funds could better be used to fund more campus events or even to improve student life at YU. Another glaring problem is that the Seforim Sale leadership is not held responsible for careless–or sometimes even selfish–decisions. The student body deserves all the funds it can receive from the Sale, and someone needs to ensure it happens.

I know that last year, around this time, several of the managers of the Sale made an effort to improve the Sale. We analyzed previous year financials to figure out what we were selling best, we analyzed our costs in an effort to spend less, and we even conducted an IT audit and updated our systems. Everything was great, we were on an excellent path. However, after a while things were slowly forgotten, we were more focused on “just getting through it.” We all had our reasons, some more significant than others, and nothing was really accomplished in the end from the perspective of improvement.

With that being said…

I challenge this years Seforim Sale management to change that path.
I challenge this years Seforim Sale to be transparent and share with the student body of Yeshiva the information it deserves to know.
I challenge the Seforim Sale to not only share results with the administration, but to also publish an income statement in the Commentator for the student body to expenses (by category, i.e. food, cost of books, and most importantly salaries etc.) and revenues.

But, my biggest challenge is to the student body:
I challenge you to speak up and demand the information and funds you rightfully deserve to receive from the managers of the Seforim Sale.

Don’t you think you deserve to know where your money is going? After all, in the end this is a fundraiser for you, the students of Yeshiva.

Jonathan Korman is a former Chief Operating Officer of the SOY Seforim Sale. He majored in accounting and is a graduate of Yeshiva (SSSB ’11).