By COLlive reporter
Costco, one of the nation’s top three retailers and the world’s largest membership warehouse chain, has started to carry the book “My Favorite Jewish Bedtime Stories.”
Authored by the late master storyteller, Rabbi Yosef Goldstein OBM, also known as “Uncle Yossi,” the book is a delightful collection of classic Jewish tales and parables drawn from Jewish lore and tradition.
The 120-page book published by the Jewish Learning Group in adorned by 85 beautiful illustrations by Joseph Maya and its universal ethics and morals are suitable for all ages.
“My father was always excited to get one more child say Shema and hear about Torah and Mitzvos,” says Uncle Yossi’s son, Rabbi Zalman Goldstein, himself an author of over 14 books, a few of them bestsellers in the Jewish market.
“When my father was once told that someone in another state was selling bootleg cassettes of his stories, he called the person and instead of giving him an earful, thanked him for helping him spread the light of Torah and Chassidus into even more Jewish homes. That’s what I grew up with,” Goldstein said.
He says that “the deeply ingrained ambition of spreading the light of Torah and Chassidus far and wide definitely continues into the next generation,” and has led him to send several copies to Costco’s book-buyer with a note.
Goldstein wrote that each year, around the winter holidays, he was surprised by “the stark lack of Jewish offerings in the holiday gift sections of major secular chains.”
“To my delight, they loved it so much that they decided to skip a small market test and roll it out across all the Costco locations at once, in what they call their Judaic regions,” Goldstein tells COLlive.com.
These areas include stores in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Chicago, Minnesota, California, and others around the country.
Goldstein has already published nearly 50 of his father’s stories in the two volumes “Uncle Yossi’s Big Book of Stories,” with a third volume being prepared.
But the Costco deal is making him especially proud.
“Of course this is a great validation of the vision and quality of the content and design of the book,” he says. “Ultimately, I am thrilled that my father’s legacy of spreading Yiddishkeit continues as he watches from the Heavens. What more can a child ask for?”
The book is on sale at Costco at the discount price of $9.95 (list $16.95) and at UncleYossi.com, through Chanukah.
Iesher Coaj !!!
WE NEEDED THIS FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN. THANK YOU AND SHEMA KEEP THE GOOD WORK
COUSINS VERONICA AND MOI.
Hatzlacha!!
SUPER Dynamic Duo Super Editor Z. Goldstein
and Super Illustrator J. Maya…True heroes doing justice
re-enhancing such beautifull & wise legacy!
#1: most of those Costcos are not very remote from Brooklyn! Hopefully this and other truely worthwhile Jewish books will be in Costcos everywhere. It would help if thospeople buy it and give positive feedback to Costco.
Zalman the little engine that could.
I remember him as a young three year old at 604 Empire watching his father work. He was quiet and sweet you can tell he was absorbing it all in.
He took all the best talents of his siblings and parents and has never stopped moving since.
A little while ago Chabad on Campus arranged to give 2500 copies of his book “Going Kosher in 30 Days” to students on all campuses including my Alma mater.
So proud of you Z!
Gershon W.
Amazing! I once watched a Documentary on How Costco runs their business…So many Manufacturers and Sellers are clamoring to get their product on their shelf. Costco executives scrutinize and test run every product presented and so many are turned away and don’t make the cut. It’s incredible that The Jewish Bedtime stories made it to Costco..What a Bracha! Kol Hakovod!
this is awesome! may more people learn from you in hafotzas hamayanos chutza!
What about Costco in East Hanover, NJ- packed with Jews all day?
They know you have to book already… 😉
and the melava malkas every moitzay shabbos?
in the goldsteins home?
Surprised not to see brooklyn costco not on the list. guess we’re not Jewish enough.
On Eastern Parkway- Rabbi Goldstein understood the kids need their own Minyan…..he taught us to cherish davening
Way before he was Uncle Yossi!!!
Pesach afternoon 1965’s in the upstairs shul…Eliyahu hanovi and the 4 coins story…the macroons – the melave malkas- the way he mezmerized us with his stories….
We need more there!
TRULY THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA, MESHIACH’S ERA!! FROM ALL THE STORES…”COSTCO…!!!”
CONGRATS TO THE EFFORTS OF THE GOLDSTEINS LEGACY!!!..and SUPERB ILLUSTRATOR JOSEPH MAYA.!!!
Zalman…You are a legend!
You are able to carry on your fathers torch to bring light of yiddishkiet into more jewish homes all around the world!
You are one very talented young man!
May Hashem bless you for mazel and brocha and as your father would say “kol tuv!” down under……………….shnuks
Wow wow wow!!
that’s amazing , Costco selling this book – true spreading out of the wellspring of chassidus and Yiddishkeit
Kol hakavod
Now Yiddishe children everywhere even in the most remote towns can hear a story based on chassidishe concepts taught by a true Mechanech and Yiras Shomayim !