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Up Front

December 21, 2000

Steimatzky in Tarzana

The largest Hebrew-language bookstore chain opens its first store outside Israel.

By Adam Wills

Tarzana may fast become the Israeli cultural center of Los Angeles. On Dec. 17, sabras flocked en masse to the grand opening of Steimatzky-Prolog L.A., a Hebrew-language bookstore that tantalizes customers with best-selling books, music CDs and children's videos from Israel.

Steimatzky, Israel's answer to Barnes & Noble, recently agreed to franchise its name for the first time to Raanan Achiasaf, an Israeli book publisher who moved to Los Angeles two months ago. Out of 140 stores, the Tarzana-based Steimatzky is the first to set up shop outside of Israel.

"It's a store that will serve the cultural needs of Israelis," says Achiasaf, who hopes to establish another store in New York and expand the reach of his publishing house, Prolog. "It's an exciting new adventure." With his brother Uval and his wife, Haya, Achiasaf says that their goal was to establish a bookstore that Israelis would instantly recognize as Steimatzky. The store's slogan: "To feel at home."

"It's a wonderful surprise," said Shemtov Dan, who was browsing through the store's fiction section. "I was so happy to see the store when I drove by."

Dan, like many of the customers visiting Steimatzky-Prolog L.A., would have visitors bring books from Israel when they came to the U.S. Others had family or friends mail books from Israel.

"It's wonderful to have a store that provides us with literature and children's books in Hebrew," says Keren Latzer, who was perusing books for her two girls. "I can share stories with my daughters that I heard growing up."

The store carries a wide selection, including travel guides, cookbooks, dictionaries, novels, art books, biographies, children's games and Hebrew translations of popular American titles, included the first three "Harry Potter" books and "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Steimatzky also has a small selection of how-to-learn-Hebrew guides and software, cookbooks and novels by Israeli authors in English.

Achiasaf says that he and his brother are working on establishing a Web site and catalog ordering in the near future.

Steimatzky-Prolog L.A. is located at 19566 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. For more information, call (818) 708-2347 or e-mail: stmla@crawler.com.

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