Death of Maplewood bookstore owner David Sky marks end of an era

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

David Sky could often be found on a ladder in the Sky Hebrew Bookstore in Maplewood, searching for a book for a customer. Or, responding to a particular request, he might disappear for a moment and reappear with a large unmarked carton. Inside, customers would find whatever treasure they were seeking — perhaps a shofar, perhaps a pair of tefillin, maybe something more obscure.

He had been part of the store since he was 12, according to his wife, Fiegie, and, despite the quiet chaos there, he knew where everything was and had a love for each piece of merchandise. But what he loved most about the store, she said, were his customers. Many would come in just to chat with him or tell him a joke. Now, there is an emptiness in the store.

On Aug. 19, David Sky succumbed to pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. Many of the store’s customers see in his passing the end of an era.

“I loved his store, period,” said Rabbi Ruth Gais, leader of Chavurat Lamdeinu in Madison and director of New York Kollel: The Center for Adult Jewish Study at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. “It was just the way a bookstore should be, piled with books, boxes everywhere. He had everything and if, after one of his trips to the mysterious back of the store or basement, he didn’t appear with it, he could get it for you in a flash. Plus, it was fun just to sit on the floor in the aisles and rummage through the dust.”

She called him “the original schmoozer,” and added, “He loved to tell stories; I always knew that once I went in the store, I was there for a good hour or more. He taught me lots, especially that all lovers of Judaism and the Jewish people are one, no matter how we dress or pray. I will miss him a lot. He was so much more than a book seller: He was a real rabbi.”

Although many people, like Gais, thought of him as a rabbi, David Sky never received rabbinic ordination. Born in Newark in 1933, he had planned to be an actuary, studying at New York University. But he was so busy at the store owned by his father that he never finished his degree, according to his wife.

The store, which opened in 1904, claims to be the nation’s third-oldest Judaica bookstore and its oldest continuously run Judaica shop. (J. Levine Books & Judaica in Manhattan opened in 1905 and also claims the latter distinction.) Begun on Prince Street in Newark as the Mendelsohn Hebrew Book Store, the store was purchased by Sky’s father, Rabbi L. Sky, in 1945, who renamed it the Rabbi L. Sky Hebrew Bookstore. Later, he added “Sky Book Associates,” and it still bears both names. David Sky worked there with his father starting at the age of 12. He learned to make tefillin and do engraving and imprinting, according to his wife. In 1963, he married Fiegie and they moved to Elizabeth, where they are part of the Jewish Educational Center Orthodox community. Two years later, when the elder Sky died, David took over the business, and in 1970, he moved the store to its current location in Maplewood, which he viewed as a crossroads of various Jewish communities. Over the years, he became a walking almanac of the area.

Like his two brothers, one a rabbi, the other a cantor, he was passionate about teaching Judaism.

In fact, his favorite kind of customer, according to his wife, was anybody who “showed a spark of interest in Judaism, from a little kid on up. He would just sit and talk with them.” That’s what Malcolm Schwartz, who celebrated becoming bar mitzva at 65, recalled. “I began to frequent the Rabbi Sky book shop. At first, I felt odd, because someone my age should be selecting more demanding tomes, but he always was supportive of my interests and efforts. He encouraged me always to read Torah so carefully. I will miss him.”

The future of the Rabbi L. Sky Book Store is uncertain. For now, Fiegie Sky said, she will continue to run the bookstore and will not make any decisions for at least six months. In the meantime, she told NJJN, she is doing her best there, although it is obvious she misses her husband. “He was amazing. He would just go to a box and put his hand in, and that was it. He knew where everything was. I used to say, ‘David where is this?’ and ‘David, where do you have that?’”

Still, she seems to be holding her own. One recent morning, she watched as a young boy tried out the shofars in a carton in one corner of the store, and explained, gently and in Yiddish, to an elderly customer who was looking to sell a Kiddush cup that the store does not buy such items. Perhaps his rabbi could help, she suggested, as if she could not bear to send him away without a kind word of advice.

In addition to Fiegie, David is survived by his children, Judah of Haddonfield and Chani of South Bound Brook; four grandchildren; and his brother, Rabbi Harry Sky of Portland, Maine.

Johanna Ginsberg can be reached at jginsberg@njjewishnews.com.

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